Brave New World Order: Must We Pledge Allegiance?

In the aftermath of the Cold War Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer offers his most challenging book to date: a probing assessment of the meaning and implications of what U.S. leaders have called a new world order. While the end of the Cold War and the mobilization of sanctions against Iraq opened the possibility of a truly new world order Nelson-Pallmeyer argues that the Gulf War was used to serve a very different purpose. United States elites in the national security establishment instead sought to make the world safe for future wars to derail the post-Cold War peace dividend and to foreclose the possibility of a world order based on international justice and commitment to human rights. From the perspective of the Third World where ever-greater debt leads to ever-greater death Nelson-Pallmeyer shows how the new world order is only a new way of managing the old world order: the misery of the poor will continue to sustain the appetites of the rich. Parallel to the increased pauperization of the Third World the 1980s saw the massive transfer of wealth within the United States from the poor to the very wealthy. The consequences: the decay of our cities and dramatic increases in racial violence drug abuse and crime. At the same time the impending ecological crisis has escalated rapidly. Finally Nelson-Pallmeyer turns his attention to the role of Christians in blessing the new world order. Appalled by the abuse of religious rhetoric in justification of the Gulf War he examines how Jesus confronted the world order of his day and calls for a radical discipleship that worships the God of life rather than the idols of power and wealth. Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is Associate Professor of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Jack is a graduate of St. Olaf College where he majored in Political Science. He did his theological training at Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he received a Master of Divinity degree. Jack is an activist academic whose life and work are focused on addressing the political economic faith and foreign policy dimensions of hunger and poverty. Jack is the author of thirteen books some of which have been used by progressive social change movements in this country and throughout the world. His life work and writings focus on peace and justice issues including: hunger and poverty; U.S. foreign policy; economic justice; authentic hope; religion and violence; the nonviolent practices of Jesus; and many problems associated with U.S. militarism. Present priority concerns include: how and why the United States became a permanent warfare state with few seeming to care; alternatives to violence; climate change and ecological challenges; inequality; and pathways to meaningful social change. Jack is married to Sara Nelson-Pallmeyer and has three daughters (Hannah Audrey and Naomi). He loves to play racquetball and to garden.