MANU Bil. 31 (1), 1-23, 2020 (Jun)
E-ISSN 2590-4086© Anthony Milner
Abstract This article is a revised and expanded version of the author’s
keynote address for the inaugural International Conference on Politics and
International Studies (ICPIS) 2018, held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
The title refects the offcial theme of the said scholarly congregation,
which deliberates on the contested notions of globalisation and the
phenomenon’s related outcomes, including its much touted hegemonic,
universal liberal qualities, which have elicited a backlash that has seen the
revival of nationalism and identity politics during the last few decades. That
globalisation has arrived at a crossroads and the thought of what might lie
ahead is what this paper seeks to ponder, through the prism and critique
of both recent as well as older works by the likes of Francis Fukuyama,
Charles Taylor, Wang Gungwu and Samuel P. Huntington. More specifcally,
it critically explores the evolution and progress of globalisation from both
historical and international relations (IR) perspectives, explicating watershed
eras in the long cycle of modern international history that had as much
facilitated as hindered the realisation of a universal liberal consensus, or
liberal triumph. Although concluding that globalisation has been stopped
in its tracks, the article nevertheless, expresses concerns regarding the
limitations of Western-oriented IR as a discipline in comprehensively
grasping the complexities of post-globalisation dynamics shaped by cultural-
ideational specifcities, not to mention, the fallacy of overemphasising on
“identity politics” as a “master concept” in explaining all that is happening
in contemporary world politics. Instead, it contends on the need to review
existing analytical frameworks, while exploring new “logics” in the quest
to construct new paradigms to help make sense of a post-globalisation,
post-liberal, probably post-Western era.
GLOBALISATION AT THE CROSSROADS? THE REVIVAL
OF NATIONALISM AND IDENTITY POLITICS
ANTHONY MILNER
Asia Europe Institute, University of Malaya
anthony.milner@um.edu.my
Dihantar: 27 Feb 2020 / Diterima: 29 April 2020