Kal Raustiala review

Raustiala presents two chief arguments about the geographic scope of American law:

1. One argument deals with extraterritoriality which he argues can come in many different forms, but in these forms we see common themes: efforts to manage, minimize, or sometimes capitalize on legal differences abroad.

2. The second argument deals with intraterritoriality, which has long been a way for American law to facilitate the growth and power of the United States. Only a limited set of rights have applied in other U.S. territory. The map of American law is larger than the map of American territory Raustiala argues. But, the map of legal rights is smaller than the map of American territory.

In order to understand these two principles, one must understand doctrines of territoriality that extend all the way back to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Some of these doctrines include that a sovereign state within documented borders is controlled and governed by its own set of principles. This is an ideal of long standing, but today states are increasingly subject to scrutiny from the outside world, Raustiala argues.

Extraterritoriality:

As the United States grew larger, extraterritoriality became the way for the United States to "project a small realm of domestic law into a (weaker) foreign power's territory as a way to inoculate one's citizens against the strange, the different, and the dangerous." (21)

Intraterritoriality:

U.S. law has differed depending on place. The supreme court has long held that Constitutional protections do not extend abroad (Insular Cases). Then, during the Cold war, Americans and other Aliens were protected by the Bill of Rights against federal action even when overseas - a more universal conception of Constitutional rights. Then in 1990, a more Westphalian or "traditional" view of territoriality was taken by the American executive branch; it denied the protections of the Fourth Amendment to foreign criminals searched by American agents abroad. Thus, American allies were more likely to be the focus of postwar regulatory and military jurisdiction. (i.e., in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)

Main Argument:

From the 19th century to present day, the executive branch has looked at traditional sovereign principles to justify lack of full constitutional rights for overseas citizens/Aliens in American "territories." Their (Aliens') geographic location decisively determines the bundle of rights they enjoy.

In our current state of affairs, the reality of constitutional rights abroad is, "the Constitution only partly follows the flag."

Since the human rights' revolution after 1945, traditional notions of sovereignty have eroded. A new conception of sovereignty puts the rights of individuals above state sovereignty. Thus, the United States has attempted to use this "absence" of state sovereignty to gain greater leeway to detain and punish for the benefit of its self-interests. To argue that the Constitution does not apply as long as the executive branch is careful to act only in particular offshore places, strikes many Americans as a startling claim.

Critique to the orthodox view:

Some advocates for human rights' argue that when the Bill of Rights was written, the word "person" rather than "citizen" was deliberate. Also the absence of any geographical limitations for the Constitution was absent in the Bill of Rights. These arguments are valid in the sense that "person" was a deliberate choice, and a geographical limitation was not present, but not for the benefit of human rights'; rather these details of the Bill of Rights are in order to protect the self-interests of the executive branch of the United States.

Global Musings on a picture

I know this picture to a Western eye is at best bizarre and possible disturbing but I feel compelled to comment on it.  In all likelihood this picture is posed but some components of it are quite probable, the iPod is the least believable part.  Yet, despite how contrived or posed this image may be it represents a rather interesting series of events in human history and especially in African history.  Taking the man in the picture, his manner of dress is probably quite similar to that of his ancestors one hundred years before him.  He is by no means "Westernized."  The exact location of the picture is hard to determine but I feel safe in saying that it is not near the cost, yet he has a large collection of snail shells.  They are clearly a sign of status and probably came to him in trade from some distance away from where he lives.  The Kalashnikov rifle is an interesting vestige of a time when a recently decolonized Africa seemed up for grabs between the forces of "democracy" and "communism."  Both superpowers actively courted and supported various rebel groups in the hopes of making the continent safe for what ever interest either superpower saw fit for Africa.  Yet both sides sought to do so under a rather interesting guise, that of some how "empowering" the local populations to sort out matters from themselves in a post colonial world.  To use Manela's phasing of Woodrow Wilson's ideology, both the United States and Soviet Union were supporting the notion of "self determination" while at the same time imposing the will of a foreign power on disparate peoples.  I suppose the failings of Wilson and others to fully understand or accept the idea that the various peoples and ethnic groups of the world would want a say in their own lives led to a tragic legacy of constant civil war for various parts of the Third World.  It also shows that despite a claim to allowing former colonial peoples to live freely, the end of colonialism simply caused them to trade one master for another.  In Africa this took on epic proportions with the constant civil wars that were fueled in part by the support of former colonial powers and the rising tensions of the Cold War.  Yet turning back to the image at hand, one can see a very interesting picture forming.  Suspending the disbelief in the authenticity of the photograph, the iPod represents a sort of future for Africa.  As the device itself boldly proclaims, it is "Designed in California, Made in China."  While companies in the United States may want to sell more products in the African market, one basic premise behind this exchange is largely ignored.  The People's Republic of China is one of the largest trading partners with African nations for raw materials and energy sources.  Despite being on the United Nation's Security Council, the PRC has ostensible supported condemnations of the genocide in Darfur while it works out trade deals with the government in Khartoum to purchase oil and natural gas, thus funding and propping up the regime that has turned a blind eye to the suffering of thousands of people.  Furthermore, Africa's mineral wealth has proven a curse far beyond diamonds.  Tantalum is an important metal because of its unique electromagnetic properties.  As such it is used in a cellphones and iPods to make the devices so compact and efficient.  The problem is that tantalum is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been one of many "conflict minerals."  Its forced mining has oppressed people in the DRC and funded warlords who can more easily sell tantalum than they can diamonds because tantalum cannot be traced back to a source like a diamond can.  Thus, while the AK-47 represents the brutal legacy of the Cold War in Africa, so does the iPod represent many of the continents current woes.  I suppose little has been learned and not much progress made sense the late 1910s. 

Tame Impala as a case study in Glocalization

I am a really big fan of indie rock for a variety of reasons.  The concept of an independent label appeals to my sensibilities with regard to large monolithic corporations, I am really not a fan, and the artistic freedom that one is afforded by being an indie act is really quite amazing.  You can produce real music, not something canned and designed to sell a billion copies.  I found out about Tame Impala through Sirius XMU, the Sirius Satellite indie rock channel, and the magic of the Internet.  The Internet has become a great promoter of youth culture in a way that no other medium has ever been able to facilitate.  The first generation that may have had a global "youth culture" was the one that came of age in the late sixties to early seventies.  The British invasion as a rock movement was by no means focused upon the United States and probably resonated through out much of the "free world" and became the subject of much bootleg importation into the Soviet Union.  But all of this was accomplished through the promotion of major record labels who controlled what message and media made it into the main stream.  Today in contrast, the Internet can represent a kind of meritocracy of music.  That is not to say that the "best" music makes it big (Miley Cyrus is a case in point of how a traditional record label can still hold sway) but what the Internet allows one to do is to connect listeners to music that is far outside of their typical scene.  Very few of the bands that I listen to have ever come within 100 miles of Hampton Roads.  The National played in Richmond last year but with the success of their latest album they probably will start touring on a larger venue circuit which means not in Virginia Beach or Norfolk.  Where as in earlier generations a band became popular in a local scene, say Seattle and Nirvana circa 1989, and then went big nationally, today a band can become famous internationally without ever doing much locally.  Thus music has become far more globalized than many other media.  Assuming you do not live behind the Great Firewall of China, an connection to the Internet connects one to a growing global youth culture of music.  Yet even more striking is how subdivided this culture truly is.  To quote the Canadian band Arcade Fire from their latest album The Suburbs, "The music we listen to, divides us into tribes."  So while I and a fellow twenty something in Tierra del Fuego can have identical exposure to music and similar tastes, because of the shear volume of music available to us it is unlikely we would have ever come into contact with the exact same material.  That being said, despite local differences we probably could still appreciate the same music despite being at different ends of the globe.  Ultimately, while previous generations had a kind of universal soundtrack to their youths, my generation has as many sound tracks as their are subcultures of music.  In the end, rather than uniting the world in a single global music culture, the Internet may very well save us from homogeneity and create a very diverse and colorful music market where anyone with recording equipment and an internet connection can become a star.  I think Andy Warhol would be proud.    Tame Impala - It is not meant to be

Look Guys! Its Kal! From our new book- Does the Constitution Follow the Flag?

Research topic

One topic that has been vital to globalization in the United States and globally in the twenty first century is Wal-Mart. To disagree that Wal-mart does not impact our global economy is crazy. Walmart serves customers and members more than 200 million times per week. Wal-Mart's international operations currently comprise 4,081 stores and 664,000 workers in 14 countries outside the United States.In 2010 the sales delivered outside the U.S. reached one hundred billion. Walmart had a fiscal year of $405 billion in sales, and Walmart employs more than 2 million associates worldwide. This number made Wal-mart number one on the Fortune 500 businesses.

My research topic or question is how does the mass globalization of Wal-mart impact the economy. For this I could look at both pros and cons of Wal-mart, both in the United States and in other courties. There is many things I can look at while also looking at the economic impact of the globalization of Wal-mart. For example, how it effects factory workers, food production, global factories, and global outsourcing. Another is the impact of shifting production to cheap labor markets overseas.

The reason I am so interested in this topic is I like how this effects the people of today and not something that has happened. The globalization of Walmart is happening, the company is growing and continues to grow every year. Another thing that interest me is how big Wal-mart actually is, and the impact it has on the global economy. Walmart that was created in 1962 grew to the number one business in fifty years.

Some smaller question I could bring up in my paper is:

· How does making production overseas effect the United States?

· What is the positives of Walmart globalizing?

· What are the negatives of Walmart globalizing?

· Why is China such important factor for Walmart?

· What countries did Walmart move to first and why?

· What does the future look like for walmart in the global perspective?

References

Fishman, Charles. 2006. The Wal-Mart effect: how the world's most powerful company really works-- and how it's transforming the American economy. New York: Penguin Press.

Smith, Hedrick, and Rick Young. 2005. Is Wal-Mart good for America? [Alexandria, Va.]: PBS Video.

Kammen, Glenn D., Robert B. Reich, Ruth Milkman, Edna Bonacich, Michael Mann, David A. Smith, Denise H. Froning, et al. 2005. Working world. Way we live : Introduction to sociology, 14. Pasadena, Calif: Intelecom.

"The Movement of Labor." New York Times 03 Aug. 2003: 7. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 29 Sept. 2010.

Gereffi, Gary, and Michelle Christian. "The Impacts of Wal-Mart: The Rise and Consequences of the World's Dominant Retailer." Annual Review of Sociology 35.1 (2009): 573-591. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 29 Sept. 2010.

First research proposal

For my paper, I will look to argue the nature of "law" and "city." Incorporated into this argument is this question of spatial reality and what inherently is "visible" and "invisible." The United States (a "city" in the relation to our discussion) is right in the center of the current debate of spatial reality. The argument of "visible invisibility" is perfect for our discussion of the United States and Globalization. The first article I read for my research is entitled, "From Space Immaterial: The Invisibility of the Lawscape." In this article's introduction, the two authors state that "invisible cities are slices of space through which visibility slides by." (438) This quote is perfect for the beginning framework of what my research is going to study; this notion of our visible "city," the United States, "shedding light onto and into blind spots, to reveal instead the resplendent floppiness the inevitably of the continuous production of further blind spots...thus confounding modernity's visibility with its very escape into invisibility." (440) The United States, the ultimate hegemonic power although slowly losing its grip on the rest of the globe, is attempting to "shed its light" onto the rest of the globe one last time, or onto one more "final frontier" - outerspace.

How is the United States able to pull such a bold move with the "weaponization of outerspace?" One argument is a "visible city and a visible law allow no space from which either of them is to be seen." In other words, nations that are under the spell of our intra-connected, capitalistic, globalized way of life, cannot see nor can they understand a "city saturated with control."

With this notion of "city" and "law" both coinciding with one another in their visible states an inherent invisibility of spatial relations, uniqueness, democracy, and opinion all become relative to the citizens of said "law" and "city." With the invisibility of "city" and "law," the United States is able to garnish enough momentum for arguably their final push to save American Exceptionalism, and ultimately, the capitalist style of world production (in other words, to save their self-interests); this final push of momentum to save the "American Dream" is the controlling of a new "frontier" or "city," outerspace. With the already facilitated notion of the fusion of "law" and "city," invisibility is the chief support system that can possibly help the United States add one final push to their hegemonic, controlling domination in our current globalized society - the sovereignty to control outerspace, and thus leading to its build up of military arms.

This is just the beginning to my proposal. I will have an updated proposal with a working bibliography published onto the blog sometime this weekend.

Thanks, JT Liverman

Research Paper proposal

Research Paper Proposal
History 433, Dr. Margolies
By John Cunningham

The Birth of Globalization in America: Virginia, England and
International Trade in the Early Seventeenth Century

When did the birth of globalization begin in America? Where did American globalization first show signs of growth? How did the early evidence of globalization first shape American culture and society? Most importantly, how did the early signs of globalization shape American political thought and foreign policy. These are the questions I will answer in my research paper.

Most scholars and historians disagree with a precise time and place of the birth of globalization in America. Some claim that globalization first occurred when early man first made contact with a neighboring tribe and diffused their different characteristics to each other. Many others look at globalization as beginning when international trade first began within the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic trade routes along the African coast. Still others look at globalization as first occurring during the late nineteenth century after the birth of rapid transport and the telegraph. Finally, many historians look at the scientific advances of the twentieth century as being globalizations birthplace. In my research paper I will examine what I consider the birth of Globalization in America. I will examine the first signs of international trade and communication within the Chesapeake Colony in today’s current state of Virginia. This trade, particularly the sale of tobacco and the influx of slavery, diffused the cultures of many different peoples that include England, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands and Denmark. Additionally, once slavery was established in the Virginia colony, the influence of African societies further fused into American culture. All of this contact between different cultures throughout the world helped to bring to life the early signs of American global power and influence.

While researching this topic I discovered a variety of different sources that can be examined. I first began my research by reading Atlantic Virginia by April Hatfield. This was an excellent book that explores the exact topic that I am researching. One of the subjects I will briefly cover in my writing is the question of why did Europeans first come to the New World. There are several primary documents that describe these reasons, one of which is the first charter of Virginia. This document I will be referring to in my research paper. Another great source is Captain John Smith’s history of Virginia. This book is a wealth of information that thoroughly describes the vast resources that were found in the Virginia colony.

As described above and in my Bibliography, I will use a variety of sources to answer a few simple questions. One of which, is how, why and where did globalization first occur in America? By answering this question I feel that many people will more fully understand Americas place in a global economy.

Bibliography

Coclanis, Peter A. The Atlantic Economy during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century. South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2005.

Deans, Bob. The River Where America Began. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Hatfield, April Lee. Atlantic Virginia, Intercolonial Relations in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Hawke, David. The Colonial Experience. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1966.
Kelso, William M. Jamestown, The Buried Truth. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006.

Pestana, Carla Gardina. The English Atlantic in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004.

Smith, John. The General History of Virginia. Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Bedford: Applewood Books, First published in 1629.

Virginia Company of London. The First Charter of Virginia.
http://www.lonang.com/exlibris/organic/1606-fcv.htm, 1606.