Book Review: Globalization Unplugged by Peter Urmetzer
This book review examines Peter Urmetzer's Globalization Unplugged: Sovereignty and the Canadian State in the Twenty-First Century (2005), in which Urmetzer challenges the widespread assumption that globalization erodes national sovereignty. The review traces Urmetzer's methodological approach — beginning with a definitional survey of globalization, moving through its historical roots in colonialism and capitalism, and culminating in a statistical and qualitative analysis of Canada's trade, foreign direct investment, manufacturing trends, and welfare-state spending. The reviewer assesses both the strengths and limitations of Urmetzer's evidence, ultimately affirming that his argument is logical, broad-based, and persuasive in establishing that globalization does not meaningfully diminish Canada's capacity for self-governance.
- Overview of Urmetzer's Argument: Introduction to the book's central sovereignty thesis
- Defining Globalization: A Catch-All Term: Urmetzer's effort to define an elusive term
- Historical Roots of Globalization: Globalization traced to colonialism and capitalism
- Canada's Trade, Investment, and Manufacturing: Statistical analysis of Canada's global economic ties
- Globalization and the Canadian Welfare State: Welfare spending rises despite globalization pressures
- Conclusion and Overall Assessment: Reviewer's final judgment on the book's strengths
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What makes this paper effective
- The review follows the book's own structure closely, walking through each major section in sequence while maintaining a clear evaluative voice that distinguishes summary from critical commentary.
- The reviewer consistently balances praise with measured critique — for example, noting where Urmetzer's statistical evidence is thin while still affirming the logic of his overall argument.
- Specific textual evidence, including direct quotations with page numbers, grounds the review in the source material and prevents vague generalization.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The review demonstrates disciplined evaluative analysis: the writer engages with both the methodology and the conclusions of the source text, assessing not just what Urmetzer argues but how convincingly he supports those arguments. This technique — separating the strength of a thesis from the adequacy of its evidence — is central to academic book reviewing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a concise thesis statement about the book's central claim, then moves chapter by chapter through Urmetzer's argument: definitional groundwork, historical context, empirical analysis of trade and investment, manufacturing trends, and welfare-state spending. The conclusion synthesizes the reviewer's overall judgment, acknowledging evidentiary limitations while affirming the book's intellectual contribution. This mirrors the structure of a standard academic book review.
Overview of Urmetzer's Argument
In Globalization Unplugged: Sovereignty and the Canadian State in the Twenty-First Century, Peter Urmetzer tackles the question of whether globalization truly detracts from a country's sovereignty. While reviewing the literature and history of globalization, he evaluates the term from all angles in search of a clearer understanding of what it means. Although he concludes, after careful consideration, that it is impossible to definitively define globalization, he establishes that it is not a new phenomenon and backs up this point with solid evidence. Most significant to his argument, however, is an understanding of how globalization and capitalism have affected Canada. In making his claim that globalization does not hinder the sovereignty of a nation-state, Urmetzer employs strong analysis by approaching the issue from an unbiased perspective using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Attempting to make sense of the perception of globalization, Urmetzer tries to define the term and its historical significance. He understands the power of the term and the effects it is perceived to have on the nation-state, but he notes that the "empirical foundations of how it has affected Canada remain largely unexamined" (Urmetzer 2005: 3). This makes Urmetzer's work a unique piece of literature in the cluttered, Americanized field of globalization studies. In Globalization Unplugged, Urmetzer examines the effects of globalization on Canada in ways that can be applied to other nation-states as well. This becomes increasingly challenging because the term "globalization" can be used to refer to "everything and anything" (Urmetzer 2005: 4). Thus, before turning to the empirical evidence, Urmetzer wisely and effectively sets out to understand the term before drawing conclusions about the effects of globalization on Canada and other nation-states.
Defining Globalization: A Catch-All Term
Urmetzer is fully aware of the vast range of literature and discussion on globalization, and he makes this clear throughout Globalization Unplugged. Before attempting to understand the implications of globalization for Canada and ultimately for the nation-state, he tries to make sense of this "catch-all term" used "to explain everything from rapidly changing communications technology to increased unemployment" (Urmetzer 2005: 3). In doing so, Urmetzer engages with the common perception of what globalization is believed to be. Because globalization is not an academic term but rather one that has gained prevalence through popular usage, he accepts the notion that globalization is "undermining the power of the state" as his working premise (Urmetzer 2005: 17). It is a true strength of his work that Urmetzer defines globalization in the best way possible in order to conduct his evaluation. By defining this presumably indefinable term in relative terms, he is able to make arguments about what globalization means for Canada.
More important, in trying to understand the term, is Urmetzer's appreciation of globalization as being "both new and old" according to "globalists" (Urmetzer 2005: 31). This later becomes a key point in his argument, but in his opening chapter, entitled "The Life and Times of Globalization," Urmetzer takes a broad approach to the issue before narrowing down to its core meaning. This approach lends itself to a definition of globalization without overlooking what has defined the term in other literature and interpretations. Ultimately, Urmetzer considers the existing arguments on globalization and then makes valid points of his own. To Urmetzer, globalization means interconnections between nations that have increased considerably since World War II, and that nation-state sovereignty has been weakened in this process. It is this final point — widely accepted as a truth about globalization — that Urmetzer seeks to evaluate without political rhetoric or pretense.
Reference
Urmetzer, Peter. Globalization Unplugged: Sovereignty and the Canadian State in the Twenty-First Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
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