Political globalization started during World War II. In 1944, a few world leaders came together in an American village called Bretton Woods, to set up the Bretton-Woods Agreements. The main goal of the gathering was to avoid the kind of financial crisis that caused World War II, and to find ways to stabilize the global financial market. The American dollar was linked directly to the value of the gold reserves, and all the other currencies were made dependent on the dollar value. In order to enlarge control over the financial policy of European and American countries, the IMF was founded. The amount of money needed for the reconstruction after the war resulted in the foundation of the Worldbank. To enlarge the world market and to make it more easy for (American) companies to sell products everywhere, also GATT was constructed.

After World War II, Germany formed a special case. To make sure Germany would never go to war again, the country was divided by the ‘winners’: the US, the UK, France and Russia. With the beginning of the Cold War, the US, the UK and French parts melted together and formed the BRD. The Russian part became the communist DDR. Because of the ‘communist danger, the US decided to invest on a huge scale in the BRD: it had to become a strong state, able to resist communist expansionism. The BRD had an enormous amount of coals and steel, and American investors understood that there was a lot of money to win if they could sell those coals in Europe. There was only one problem: during this period European countries protected their national markets against international trade. That is why the US started a process to pull down those trade barriers. With the European Community for Coals and Steel (1951) firsts steps were made in that direction. The US also wanted to set up a European army, in order to be able to fight communism. The European Defense Community (1954) never saw action. In 1957, the European Economic Community and the European Community for Atomic Energy was founded. It continued the breakdown of trade barriers and facilitated international trade for multinationals. The BRD was an important force behind the liberalization process, but so was the profit-hunger of American companies and the quest for new markets.

Not only on the economic, but also on the military level, there was more need for co-operation. After World War II, the Cold War (between capitalist America and communist Russia) set in. In order to block off the ‘big threat of communism, America began to build military posts around the world. They also wanted Europe to choose side. This resulted, in 1949, in the formation of NATO: a culmination of the armed forces of Europe and the US. As a reaction, Russia formed an armed force together with its allies: the Warshau-pact. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the Warshau-pact ended. NATO contrarily increasingly became ‘the army of the (American) multinationals’, as the AGM states. (see also the rise of imperialistic wars)

When in 1973 the international crisis broke out, a few more institutions were formed. The World Economic Forum (WEF) and the first meetings of the G7 and G8 all tried to find solutions for the crisis of capitalism. This also led to the formation of a neo-liberal policy, soon taken over by all the western governments.

In the nineties, political globalization takes further steps. In 1991, the Agreement of Maastricht is signed. This agreement obliges the different European states to cut costs even more and to unify the economic level of each state. In 1994, the EEG becomes the EU: no more barriers and freedom of trade. The US reacts with the formation of an own ‘big market with freedom of trade. In 1994, NAFTA is formed for that reason. In the same year, GATS sees the light. In 1995, the WTO is founded, as a successor for the GATT-agreements and as a formal institution to liberalize world trade even farther. (Barrez:2001, Vandepitte:2001)

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Barrez, D. (2001) De antwoorden van het antiglobalisme. Leuven:Globe

Vandepitte, M. (2001) Dit Europa wilen wij niet. d14/Indymedia