Jeffrey E. Garten is a Washington executive who entered the Clinton administration in the summer of 1993 as the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade. During his tenure, he decided to launch the Big Emerging Markets' project ('BEMs' project). This project flagged of with a very important question i.e. 'Where will the American interests lie in ten or twenty years from now?' His objective was to develop a comprehensive study on the phenomenon that he considered vital for developing international relations, i.e. the 'BEMs'. This study was aimed to create awareness among the officials to generate and implement their ideas as concrete actions to face this challenge.
[...] This is due to the very nature of the Big Ten (big populations, low wages . ) and due to the development strategy they adopt (need for investment, pressures for free-trade development model . The "BEMs" are mainly an export issue for the US when dealing with the economic aspect of this phenomenon. Chapter 3 : the "BEMs" phenomenon is happening right now so it is not fixed. Hence many risks are present (change in economic orientation of the "BEMs", wars . [...]
[...] That is the reason why this book is more dealing with the Big Emerging Markets phenomenon on an economic point of view, and is not dealing really with the evolution of the international system at large. Garten is only addressing one aspect of the "BEMs" phenomenon even if it may be the most important one. This primacy of economy makes Garten forget to address correctly the rise of military uncertainties in the world as the 1990s are the decade with the highest number of conflicts in the XXth century. [...]
[...] Thus, big issues are rising such as labour standards or human rights with the rise of an anti- American feeling in some parts of the world because of their pressures. On the other hand, some global issues require global co-operation to be solved, including the "BEMs" (like pollution, terrorism or population pressures). Chapter 6 : Garten argues that America may not be prepared to face the challenge of the "BEMs" according to its non-awareness of the phenomenon and because of its tradition in foreign policy that is a "balance between perceived threats to (their) security versus the costs of foreign involvement". [...]
[...] The two more needed elements right now are co-operation and help to develop links between "BEMs" and others. Garten thinks and argues that the first is therefore the creation of broad and strong economic ties between the US and the Big Ten Quick overview by chapter : Chapter 1 : presentation of the "BEMs" phenomenon and how they chose the Big Ten. He introduces the two levels of analysis, i.e, the parallel between each country's situation and the broad "BEMs" picture. [...]
[...] However, the "BEMs" phenomenon addressed by Garten seems to go toward a mix of these two theories. The United States are the superpower and its interests are linked to the rise of those new key actors. This book is great at understanding the importance of this phenomenon with numerous examples and numbers to illustrate it. For example, Garten gives the figure of one trillion dollars of growth in American exports with the "BEMs" between 1990 and 2010. Hence, this book is not only useful for Americans but also for all Occidentals as they are going to face the same issues, more or less. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
