Toward a Postmodern Prince? The Battle in Seattle as a Moment in the New Politics of Globalisation

Abstract

This essay analyses recent protests against aspects of neoliberal globalisation, as for example at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in Seattle in late 1999 and in Washington, DC in spring 2000 to coincide with the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings. I first examine the reasons for the failure of the Seattle talks, and secondly, evaluate the protests and their political significance. Finally, I analyse some emerging forms of political agency associated with struggles over the nature and direction of globalisation that I call the ‘the postmodern Prince’. This concept is elaborated in the final section of this essay. It is important to stress at the outset, however, that in this essay the term ‘postmodern’ does not refer, as it often does, to a discursive or aesthetic moment. In my usage, ‘postmodern’ refers to a set of conditions, particularly political, material, and ecological that are giving rise to new forms of political agency whose defining myths are associated with the quest to ensure human and intergenerational security on and for the planet, as well as democratic human development and human rights. As such, the multiple and diverse political forces that form the postmodern Prince combine both defensive and forward-looking strategies. Rather than engaging in deconstruction, they seek to develop a global and universal politics of radical (re)construction. The battle in Seattle took place both inside and outside the conference centre in which the meetings took place; the collapse of the discussions was partly caused by the greater visibility of trade issues in the everyday lives of citizens and the