Understanding Those at the Forefront of Globalization
On the Cutting Edge of Globalization: An Inquiry into American Elites. By James N. Rosenau, David C. Earnest, Yale H. Ferguson, Ole R. Holsti Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006. 216 pp., $72.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-7425-3975-X), $32.95 paper (ISBN: 0-7425-3976-8).

To understand the sources and future of globalization, it is essential to understand the individuals who are at the forefront of this movement. Yet, considering how vibrant and varied the literature on globalization is, systematic examinations of the people who are on the front lines of it are surprisingly rare. They are often presumed to have certain traits, and some of these presumed characteristics have received a fair amount of scrutiny—as exemplified by Peter Furia's (2005) examination of cosmopolitanism. But a large-scale systematic study of who these individuals are, what they do, and what they believe has heretofore been lacking in the literature. Just such an analysis is the great contribution of On the Cutting Edge of Globalization , by James Rosenau, David Earnest, Yale Ferguson, and Ole Holsti. The book illuminates who these people are. It tells us about their behaviors and their priorities. It shows us how they differ from other elite decision makers and what these characteristics mean for the future of globalization.

The centerpiece of the research reported in this book is a massive survey of elites. Rosenau and his colleagues surveyed this population twice, conducting one survey in 1999 and another in 2003. These surveys are used to examine the differences between elites who are at the forefront of globalization (dubbed “Cutting-Edgers”) and those who are not (“Other Leaders”) and to explore variations in the views of the two groups over time. Rosenau and his colleagues adopt a broad view of the types of …