GLOBALIZATION ON A DOWNHILL SLIDE: Recent developments threaten the globalization master plan

If the global economy is so powerful, so efficient, and (most importantly) so irresistible, why does globalization suddenly look so shaky?

It seems like yesterday that American philosopher Francis Fukuyama proclaimed the "end of history"-celebrating the collapse of communism and the ascendance of a global neoliberal order. An awful lot of history has unfolded since then, of course. Today, in contrast, our home-grown philosopher laureate John Ralston Saul can credibly proclaim (in his new book, The Collapse of Globalism) the "end of globalization."

Unlike Saul, I'm not quite ready to write globalization's obituary-not yet, anyway. To many rich and powerful people have too …