The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-first Century

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2004 - Business & Economics - 337 pages
Despite repeated predictions of the demise of America and the English-speaking nations as the world's predominant culture, James C. Bennett believes that this gap will widen in the coming decades. Coining the term anglosphere to describe a loose coalition based on a common language and heritage, Bennett believes that traits common to these countries--a particularly strong and independent civil society; openness and receptivity to the world, its people and ideas; and a dynamic economy--have uniquely positioned them to prosper in a time of dramatic technological and scientific change. In a wide-ranging exploration back to the Industrial Revolution and into the future, The Anglosphere Challenge gives voice to a growing movement on both sides of the Atlantic.
 

Selected pages

Contents

THE INTERNET ERAAND BEYOND
9
The Singularity
11
Thinking about the Revolutions of Singularity
12
Bounded and Unbounded Visions
13
The Space Development Example
14
Mistaking Bounded for Unbounded Problems
18
Extending Lifespan and the Consequences
20
Taking a Possibility Seriously
21
Evolving New Forms from Existing Elements
144
The Case of Anglosphere Defense Cooperation
155
Who Will Control the Commonwealth? Popular Control of Transnational Institutions
163
Commonwealth or Tribalism
165
Network Commonwealths around the World
168
United Nationsor Associated Commonwealths?
175
THE ANGLOSPHERE AS A UNIQUE CIVILIZATION
177
The Anglosphere Constitutional Tradition and War
181

The Pessimistic Scenario
23
The Next Phase of the information Revolution and Its Implications
24
The Case of Nanotechnology
27
Civil Societies and the Economy of the Singularity
29
The Civic State and the Network Commonwealth
37
Hobbes and Rousseau in Cyberspace
38
Limits to the Breakdown of Big Governments
40
The Growing Worldwide Market in Sovereignty Services and the Decline of the Monopoly of the Economic State
42
The End of Capitalism and the Triumph of the market Economy
45
On the Nature and Limits of Governments in the Era of the Singularity
53
The Power of SelfAssembly Protocols
59
A Tool for the Singularity Revolution
60
A Call for Civilizational Construction
63
THE ANGLOSPHERE AND ITS REVOLUTION
65
The Anglosphere and the New Understanding of the West
70
Why the Information Revolution Is Drawing the Anglosphere Closer Together
73
What Is the Anglosphere?
77
States Regions and Cultural Nations
80
Cultural NationsThe Invisible Understructure
81
Whats the Difference?
82
The Anglosphere Perspective
87
Memetic Plagues of the Anglosphere
91
Coming Home to the Anglosphere
98
TRUST CIVIL SOCIETY GOVERNMENT AND CYBERSPACE
107
One World Through the Internet? The Role of Trust Cooperation and Cultural Commonality
111
Trust and Civil Society
112
Trust Reform and the Three Gateways
115
One World Many Marketplaces
120
Living Simultaneously in Cyberspace and the Physical World
122
Better Communications and the Rise of Nationalism
124
Geopolitics and the Topology of Information Space
127
Hanseatic Leagues in Cyberspace
130
Rules of Thumb for Intervention
133
The AnarchoCapitalist Debate and Other Red Herrings
136
Civic States and largeScale Federations
139
What Will Become of Big Government Establishments?
139
THE CIVIC STATE AND THE NETWORK COMMONWEALTH
142
Union and Secession in the Anglosphere
189
Preserving the National Voice in a Decentralized World
193
The Anglospheres history as the History of Its Cultural Nations
195
The Relationship between Cultural Nations and NationStates
207
North America
209
Cultural Nations Elsewhere in the Anglosphere
219
Regions Civic States and Scale
220
THE ANGLOSPHERE CENTURY
223
Divergence and the End of the First Empire
224
The Dilemma of the Second Empire
226
Potential Roadblocks to an Anglosphere Network Commonwealth
229
Postimperial Identity Questions in the Commonwealth States
233
American Africans the Caribbean and Africa
234
Embedded Cultures native Nations and PanAnglosphere Minorities
236
Uses of the Network Commonwealth
238
Constitutional Traditions and the Technologies of the Singularity
244
harmony without Homogenization
246
The Anglosphere Debate
247
Moving toward an Anglosphere Network Commonwealth
253
Devolution and the Neverendum in Scotland and Quebec
254
The Stalled Transition to High Trust
257
Prospects for the Anglosphere
259
Canada and Le Projet Trudeau
260
Two Nations and Two Network Civilizations
262
Scotland and the West Lothain Question the Euro and the Westphalian Questions
264
From PostCold War Reorientation to the Challenge of the Singularity
270
What Form of Union?
273
Identity in Oceania
274
What Price the EU?
276
Trade and Defense Drivers for the Network Commonwealth
279
The Anglosphere as the Offshore Island
281
The Anglosphere and the Challenge of the Singularity
283
ANNOTATING BIBLIOGRAPHY
287
INDEX
317
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
333
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

James C. Bennett is a founding director of the non-profit Foresight Institute, which deals with education and research on nanotechnology, and the related Institute for Molecular Manufacturing. He is also a cofounder of The Anglosphere Institute, a non-profit organization conducting policy research and further the concepts of the Anglosphere and the Network Commonwealth. Bennett is an adjunct fellow of The Hudson Institute.