The Global Village Myth: Distance, War, and the Limits of Power

摘要

In this beautifully crafted critique of globalism, American foreign policy, and much current thinking about the impact of modern military technology on security, Patrick Porter offers a compelling reassessment of the idea that the world is “shrinking,” especially when it comes to the use of force in international politics. In Porter’s view, contemporary strategists erroneously extrapolate from the peacetime world to the battlefield, confusing the “permissive” environment of civilian activities to the “contested” environment of conflict. Admittedly, the information revolution has given us the ability to transcend distance when it comes to virtually all forms of communication. Nevertheless, this newfound freedom only exists when systems are functioning and are not subjected to political or physical interference. Terminate just one connection in the multifaceted process known as international airline travel, and the plane will never leave the terminal. At the heart of Porter’s analysis is a Clausewitzian view of conflict. Peacetime transportation and communications are largely a linear affair governed by efficiency, accessibility, and ease of operations. In wartime, however, results are determined by the interactions of opposing forces, which can produce decidedly different outcomes. This is why oceans, for instance, can be depicted as both highways and barriers. In peacetime, they are the most efficient way to transport goods over long distances, whereas in wartime, they can be transformed into barriers that can be penetrated only at enormous cost and effort. Given this dialectical perspective, it might be too early to tell whether modern military technologies—precision guidance, robotics, cyberwar, global surveillance—will serve to shrink distance or actually create significant barriers to projecting military power. Porter makes the case that a tightly connected globalized world—in which political, military, and cyber threats easily transcend space and time—is unlikely to exist when states use similar technologies to erect relatively inexpensive defenses.