In Defense of Globalization

Posted: July 22nd, 2016

By Gary Grappo

Gary Grappo is a former U.S. ambassador who held senior positions including Minister Counselor for Political Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad; U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman; and Charge d’Affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. As a career member of the Senior Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State, he served as Envoy and Head of Mission of the Office of the Quartet Representative, the Honorable Mr. Tony Blair, in Jerusalem. He’s currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Middle East Studies at the Korbel School for International Studies, University of Denver.

So, why America’s apparent turn toward nationalism, nativism, and even isolationism? How could the nation most responsible for leading this great and grand strategy to move mankind out of insularity to such unprecedented prosperity now wish to effectively take a wrecking ball to the whole lot?

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson attributes it to America’s Republican Party’s endorsement of Donald Trump, who campaigns on “a brand of populism rooted in ignorance, prejudice, fear, and isolationism.” That may explain in large measure the motivation of many of those attacking globalization.

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