GERMAN 270
Sovereignty and the Limits of Globalization and Technology
Winter Quarter 2019
Russell Berman and Peter Thiel
Tuesday 3:00 PM- 5:50
The current historical moment appears to be marked by
opposition to globalization, which has emerged in many countries
in the various forms of populism, restrictive trade policies, attacks
on “neo-liberalism,” protest parties and localism. These positions
are sometimes accompanied by appeals to national interests and
cultural traditions. This new mood is viewed as a break with a
previous paradigm of international institutions and “world
citizenship.”
This seminar proceeds from this contemporary reassertion of
state sovereignty against market processes and internationalist
claims in order to inquire into the historical, theoretical and
cultural roots of the problem. Has the process of globalization
stalled? What are the implications for the state and its aspiration
for sovereignty? And how does technology, which contributed so
much to the process of globalization, fit into this picture,
especially in the guise of new technologies? This seminar
therefore explores the tensions between state and market, their
cultural contexts, technological innovation, and the importance of
community belonging.
Enrollment is limited: To be considered for enrollment in this
course, please complete and submit the short application
available at the Explorecourses site by October 19, 2018,
11:59pm PST. Students accepted to participate in this course will
be notified on October 26, 2018 by 6:00pm. Auditors are not
permitted. Application:
http://web.stanford.edu/~conorato/german270.fb
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 Course Requirements: In addition to completing all the reading
and participating in discussion:
1) A two-page (approx. 500 words) reading response each week
on the current texts. Do not provide summaries but instead
offer your thoughts on how these texts contribute to our
inquiry into globalization, sovereignty and technology. Feel
free to highlight problematic or difficult passages.
2) Each student will present one 10-15 minute oral presentation
on the day’s readings. There will be multiple presentations
at each session, so the presenters will be expected to
coordinate among themselves so as not to be repetitive.
Introduce the readings, explain their importance and offer
your criticism and discussion questions.
3) A term paper due at the last session, March 12. Discuss the
topic in advance with the instructors. You may write on any
of the texts, providing closer interpretation. However you
are also welcome to discuss current political, technological or
cultural developments—in light of the seminar’s reflections—
and offer your account.

2

 1 - Globalization: Prophecy versus History

January 8th

Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?” in The National
Interest (1989) ~25pp
Kishore Mahbubani, Has the West Lost It? (2018) ~90pp
Stephen R. Platt, "How Britain's First Mission to China Went
Wrong" (2018) ~5 pp
Norman Angell, title chapter from The Great Illusion (first
published 1909; fourth American edition 1913) ~25pp
In the summer of 1989, just as tanks rolled through Tiananmen
Square, but just before the Berlin Wall fell, American political
scientist Francis Fukuyama declared the "end of history": different
countries might take more or less time to get there, but the
inevitable destination for everyone would be liberal democracy.
Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani reviews the historical
record of American leadership during this time of faith in
globalization: a failed war in Iraq, a disastrous financial crisis, and
a top trading partner that just declared its leader president for
life. Were prophecies of success related to this history of failure?
Norman Angell's Great Illusion (fourth American edition published
in 1913) and historian Stephen Platt's vignette of China before the
Opium War introduce two other moments, one and two centuries
ago, when leaders believed that global commerce would bring
about peace and unity.
2 – Universalism: From the Tower of Babel to the Last
Things
January 15th
Genesis 11:1-9 (The Tower of Babel) ~1p
Karl Löwith, Meaning in History (1949) pp iv-207 ~210pp
Revelation 17 (Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots) ~1p
Would anybody ever have believed in a single destiny for the
whole world without first having believed in a single deity?
Philosopher Karl Löwith's Meaning in History gives an answer
while it reviews all the ways the West has understood history's
meaning, from the Bible to Kant and Marx.

3

 3 - From 1914 to 1949: World War
22nd

January

Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (1928; 1932
edition) ~100pp
Carl Schmitt, Land and Sea (1940) ~100pp
Alain de Benoist, "Nazism and Communism: Evil Twins?"
(1998) ~19pp
Carl Schmitt rebuts universal empire with a vision of friends
versus enemies. Alain de Benoist suggests that even the most
extreme enemies may come to resemble each other. How does a
geopolitical reading of land and sea powers map onto questions of
globalization, culture, and community?
4 - The 1950s: Toward a world state?
29th

January

Alexandre Kojève, Tyranny and Wisdom (1950) in On
Tyranny ~40pp
Leo Strauss, “Restatement on Xenophon’s Hiero” (1959) in
On Tyranny ~40pp
Why not have a world government? If there is a single rational
way to rule, why shouldn't rationality rule the world? Progressive
Russian-French emigré Alexandre Kojève, who helped lay the
groundwork for the European Union, engages conservative
German-American emigré Leo Strauss in a classic debate about
the "universal and homogenous state."
5 - From the ‘60s to the ‘10s: Optimism to Stagnation
February 5th
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, The American Challenge
(1967) pp 2-50 ~48pp
Robert Gordon, "Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?" (2012)
~21pp
John Horgan, "Why I Think Science Is Ending" (1997) ~10pp

4

 M. Teitelbaum, "The Myth of the Science and Engineering
Shortage" (2014) ~5pp
Christopher Lasch, The Revolt of the Elites (1996) pp 3-79;
pp 161-175 ~90pp
Vaclav Smil, "Can Trump bring manufacturing jobs back?"
(2017) ~2pp
Proponents of progress promise(d) economic growth and
technological innovation. Yet authors this week suggest that
progress may have been oversold. Journalist Jean-Jacques
Servan-Schreiber in 1967 warned his fellow Europeans of coming
eclipse as a result of accelerating economic and technological
progress in America. But economist Robert Gordon, looking back
from 2012, reviews an actual record of economic and
technological stagnation. John Horgan argues that pure science,
too, has reached a plateau. Michael Teitelbaum suggests that
alarmism about a shortage of scientists has perversely made
science a less attractive career. The gap between the mirage of
progress and the reality of stagnation—experienced unequally
across the social spectrum—has had cultural and political
consequences, as described by Christopher Lasch. Vaclav Smil
raises a politically relevant point about the unique importance of
manufacturing.
6 - Varieties of Universalism and Cosmopolitanism
February 12t
Ingeborg Bachmann, "Three Paths to the Lake" (1972) ~95pp
Benedict XVI, the Regensburg Lecture (2006) ~20pp
Barack Obama, the Cairo Speech (2009) ~13pp
K. A. Appiah, “There is No Such Thing as Western
Civilization”
(2016) ~10pp
J. D. Davidson & Lord William Rees-Mogg, "Transcending
Locality"
(1997) ~29pp
Kai-fu Lee, AI Superpowers (2018) ~100pp excerpt TBD

5

 Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann's story explores the
subjective experience of a cosmopolitan life, amid questions of
empire and the authenticity of provincial localism. Benedict XVI
and Barack Obama both address Islam, one from the point of view
of rationalist Catholic universalism, the other from the point of
view of liberal humanitarian universalism. K. A. Appiah argues for
cosmopolitanism and against ideas of Western uniqueness. But if,
as he claims, there is “no such thing as Western Civilization,”
would he also claim that there is no East Asian civilization? No
Islamic civilization? Is civilization antithetical to any local
specification? James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg
could be said to herald a different kind of cosmopolitanism, one
based on the separation of money from government. Their view of
technology transcending politics raises the question of
cryptocurrency: is this the ultimate challenge to state
sovereignty? At the opposite end of information technology, Kai-fu
Lee predicts that the implementation of Artificial Intelligence will
be the key to China's coming economic dominance.
7 - The Future of World Order

February 19th

Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism (2018) ~234 pp
Liu Mingfu, "The Chinese Dream to Overtake America"
(2015) ~5pp
Garden variety progressivism stereotypically denounces empire
and imperialism, but what is the opposite of empire? Yoram
Hazony says it is nationalism, for which he offers a sustained
defense. Former PLA officer Liu Mingfu speaks for one particularly
strong strain of contemporary nationalism.
8 - Actually existing globalization: Corruption on the
periphery
February 26th
Sarah Chayes, Thieves of State (2015) ~200pp
Rory Stewart, "The Irresistible Illusion" in London Review of
Books (2009) ~9pp

6

 Based on long experience in US-occupied Afghanistan, Sarah
Chayes argues that corruption fuels violence. But who will take
responsibility for ridding the world of corruption, and how could it
be done? Rory Stewart contrasts the realism of 19th century
British imperialists with the abstraction and impracticality of
contemporary bureaucrats. This week looks at what has actually
happened where Western force has been used to spread
democracy.
9 - Actually existing globalization: Consumption in the
metropole
March 5th
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, "Conspicuous consumption is over"
(2017) ~2pp
Amy Chua, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" (2011) ~5pp
Tom Wright & Bradley Hope, "The Billion-Dollar Mystery Man
and the Wildest Party Vegas Ever Saw" (2018) ~10pp
René Girard, “Triangular Desire,” from Deceit, Desire, and
the Novel
(1961) ~50pp
Geoffrey West, "Toward a Science of Cities," from Scale
(2017) ~65pp
Is there any future outside of big cities? What are big cities for,
anyway? This week turns to questions of imitation and rivalry on a
global scale, especially as intensified within and diffused from
metropoles like London and New York. Elizabeth Currid-Halkett
describes the consumption habits of the upper middle class; Amy
Chua describes the methods of child rearing intended to get kids
into that class. Tom Wright and Bradley Hope's reporting on the
man who stole $7 billion USD from the 1MDB sovereign wealth
fund combines imitative consumption with the previous week's
theme of corruption. René Girard contributes a theory of imitative
desire; Geoffrey West outlines a theory of cities. Is the
concentration of talent in a small handful of cities irreversible?
10 - Antichrist and Apocalypse

7

March 12th

 René Girard, “Hamlet’s Dull Revenge,” from Theater of Envy
(1991) ~19pp
Vladimir Solovyov, War, Progress, and the End of History
(1900) ~180pp
What was Hamlet waiting for? René Girard reinterprets this classic
avatar of Western man: in an age when technology has made it
possible to destroy the world, perhaps we should understand
hesitation before vengeance. Vladimir Solovyov looks forward
from 1900 to a speculative end of history, including
intercontinental war and an Anti-Christ preaching universal
harmony. What did he get right? What does the end of history look
like to us today?
-Books to purchase (multiple chapters assigned). These will be
ordered at the bookstore and will be placed on reserve in Green
Library.
(Note: Servan-Schreiber and Solovyov may only be available for
purchase on Kindle. We will try to identify other opportunities for
access.)
Kishore Mahbubani, Has the West Lost It? (London: Allen
Lane, 2018)
$14.68 hardcover
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Has-West-Lost-KishoreMahbubani/dp/0241312868
Karl Löwith, Meaning in History (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago
Press, 1949)
$27.90 paperback
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Meaning-HistoryTheological-Implications-Philosophy/dp/0226495558
Carl Schmitt, The Concept of the Political (Chicago: Univ. of
Chicago Press, 2007)
$21.10 paperback
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 Link: https://www.amazon.com/Concept-PoliticalExpanded-Carl-Schmitt/dp/0226738922
Carl Schmitt, Land and Sea (Candor, NY: Telos Press, 2015)
$21.95 paperback
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Land-Sea-WorldHistorical-Carl-Schmitt/dp/0914386565
Leo Strauss, On Tyranny (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press,
2013)
$30.00 paperback
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-CorrectedIncluding-Strauss-KojèveCorrespondence/dp/022603013X
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, The American Challenge
(Paris: Versilio, 2014)
$9.99 on Kindle; otherwise out of print
Link: https://www.amazon.com/American-ChallengeJean-Jacques-Servan-Schreiber-ebook/dp/B00KLDRT0U
Christopher Lasch, The Revolt of the Elites (New York:
Norton, 1996)
$18.42 paperback
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Revolt-Elites-BetrayalDemocracy/dp/0393313719
Kai-fu Lee, AI Superpowers (New York: Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt, 2018)
Link: https://www.amazon.com/AI-Superpowers-ChinaSilicon-Valley/dp/132854639X
Yoram Hazony, The Virtue of Nationalism (New York: Basic
Books, 2018)
$19.49 hardcover
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Virtue-NationalismYoram-Hazony/dp/1541645375
Sarah Chayes, Thieves of State (New York:
Norton, 2016)
$15.72 paperback
Link: https://www.amazon.com/Thieves-StateCorruption-Threatens-Security/dp/0393352285
Vladimir Solovyov, War, Progress, and the End of History:
Three Conversations Including a Short Story of the AntiChrist (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne, 1990)
$9.99 on Kindle; otherwise out of print
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 Link: https://www.amazon.com/War-Progress-HistoryVladimir-Solovyov-ebook/dp/B00AR5HB96/
Journal articles:
Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?” pp 3-18 in The
National Interest No. 16 Summer 1989
Link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24027184
Alain de Benoist, "Nazism and Communism: Evil Twins?"
pp178-192 in Telos Summer 1998
Link:
http://journal.telospress.com/content/1998/112/178.full.
pdf
Single chapters from books (available as pdf on the Canvas site)
Ingeborg Bachmann, "Three Paths to the Lake," pp 117-212
in Three Paths to the Lake: Stories by Ingeborg Bachmann
(New York: Holmes & Meier, 1989)
James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg,
"Transcending Locality: The Emergence of the
Cybereconomy," Chapter 7 (pp 178-206) in The Sovereign
Individual: Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997) [the same chapter is
found on pp 196-224 in the Touchstone paperback edition]
Geoffrey West, "Toward a Science of Cities," Chapter 7 (pp
269-324) in Scale: The
Universal Laws of Growth,
Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms,
Cities, Economies, and Companies (New York: Penguin, 2017)
René Girard, “Triangular Desire,” Chapter 1 (pp 1-52) in
Deceit, Desire, and the Novel: Self and Other in Literary
Structure (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press,
1965)

10

 René Girard, “Hamlet’s Dull Revenge,” Chapter 30 (pp 271289) in
Theater of Envy: William Shakespeare (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1991)
Articles, speeches, and book excerpts available free online:
Stephen R. Platt, "How Britain's First Mission to China Went
Wrong," LA Review of Books China Channel, May 18, 2018;
excerpt from Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End
of China's Last Golden Age (New York: Knopf, 2018)
Link: https://chinachannel.org/2018/05/18/macartney
Norman Angell, "The Great Illusion," Part I Chapter III (pp 2849) in The Great
Illusion (New York: Putnam, 1913)
Link: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38535/38535h/38535-h.htm
Robert Gordon, "Is U.S. Economic Growth Over?" NBER
Working Paper No. 18315, August 2012
Link: http://www.nber.org/papers/w18315.pdf
John Horgan, "Why I Think Science Is Ending," Edge blog
conversation, May 6, 1997; addressing arguments from his
book The End of Science: Facing The Limits of Knowledge in
the Twilight of the Scientific Age (Boston, MA: AddisonWesley, 1996)
Link: https://www.edge.org/conversation/john_horganwhy-i-think-science-is-ending
Michael Teitelbaum, "The Myth of the Science and
Engineering Shortage," The Atlantic, March 19, 2014
Link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/03/
the-myth-of-the-science-and-engineeringshortage/284359/
Vaclav Smil, "Can Trump bring manufacturing jobs back?"
MIT Press Blog, January 20, 2017; addressing arguments
from his book Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of
American Manufacturing (Boston, MA: MIT Press, 2013)
Link: https://mitpress.mit.edu/blog/can-trump-bringmanufacturing-jobs-back-conversation-vaclav-smil

11

 Benedict XVI, "Faith, Reason and the University: Memories
and Reflections," Lecture at Regensburg, September 12,
2006
Link: http://w2.vatican.va/content/benedictxvi/en/speeches/2006/september/documents/hf_benxvi_spe_20060912_university-regensburg.html
Barack Obama, Remarks to the Muslim world, Lecture at
Cairo, June 4, 2009
Link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/politics/04oba
ma.text.html
K. A. Appiah, “There is No Such Thing as Western
Civilization” The Guardian, November 9, 2016
Link:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/wester
n-civilisation-appiah-reith-lecture
Liu Mingfu, "The Chinese Dream to Overtake America" The
Atlantic, June 4, 2015; excerpt from The China Dream: Great
Power Thinking and Strategic Posture in the Post-American
Era (New York: CN Times, 2015)
Link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/
06/china-dream-liu-mingfu-power/394748/
Rory Stewart, "The Irresistible Illusion" (London Review of
Books Vol. 31 No. 13, July
9, 2009)
Link: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n13/rory-stewart/theirresistible-illusion
Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, "Conspicuous consumption is over"
Aeon, June 7, 2017; excerpt from The Sum of Small Things: A
Theory of the Aspirational Class
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton
University Press, 2017)
Link: https://aeon.co/ideas/conspicuous-consumption-isover-its-all-about-intangibles-now
Amy Chua, "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" Wall Street
Journal, January 8, 2011; excerpt from Battle Hymn of the
Tiger Mother (New York, Penguin: 2011)
Link:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1000142405274870411
1504576059713528698754
12

 Tom Wright and Bradley Hope, "The Billion-Dollar Mystery
Man and the Wildest Party Vegas Ever Saw," Wall Street
Journal, September 15, 2018; excerpt from Billion Dollar
Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the
World (New York: Hachette, 2018)
Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-billion-dollarmystery-man-and-the-wildest-party-vegas-ever-saw1536984061

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