Global California: Rising to the Cosmopolitan Challenge Review

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(More customer reviews)Engagingly written and persuasively argued, Global California is a fascinating read for the specialist and the general reader alike. Lowenthal's approach is highly original; he explores California's ties to the rest of the world as if the state were a country unto itself, a free-standing actor on the global stage. While he certainly isn't calling for secession, he is pushing for a revolution in the way Californians see their place in the world.
As opening chapters make abundantly clear, what's needed, however, is not so much a revolution as a reality check. California has an economy larger than that of Brazil, Russia, or India. It's not so far off being the "C" in BRIC. The state's population is greater than Canada's and contains the highest number of Mexicans anywhere outside of Mexico. Its interests are inseparable from a whole range of international issues ranging from trade to immigration to intellectual property rights.
Yet California continues to lack a serious vision for its role as an international actor. While Californians are all too eager to be seen at the cutting edge of the Union, they are all too slow to get serious about their position as a major hub in an increasingly interconnected world. Lowenthal pulls no punches; such parochialism is dangerously anachronistic.
That said, Lowenthal is ultimately and firmly an optimist. He lays out concrete steps that politicians, businesspeople, and engaged citizens can all take to meet the challenges of an increasingly globalized world. Global California highlights how each of these groups can work to harness some of the most powerful forces shaping the 21st century. For anyone with a personal, political, or financial investment in the future of California, reading this book is the intellectual equivalent of coming across a $100 bill on the sidewalk.


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California is at the cutting edge of technological change, demographic transformation, and international engagement. It has the country's largest population, and is its biggest producer of agricultural and manufactured goods, its main exporter and importer, and a leading center for higher education, research, the media, and philanthropy. Its population is the most international; more than a quarter of the state's residents were born in another country. But habits of thought and structures date from the mid-twentieth century, when California was turned inward. California today lacks ideas, institutions, and policies commensurate with its global stakes and clout.Global California addresses an important subject: how the citizens of a state with the dimensions and power of a nation are affected by international trends, and what they can do to identify and promote their own interests in a rapidly changing world. In this fresh, well-informed, and balanced analysis, Abraham Lowenthal deals with numerous thorny issues-from globalization, trade, and infrastructure to immigration, environmental pollution, climate change, and California's ties with neighboring Mexico and the dynamic Asian economies.A recognized authority on foreign affairs, Lowenthal argues that the real choices are not whether to cheer globalization or condemn it. Rather, Californians need to think strategically and act effectively to gain as much as possible from international engagement while managing its risks and costs. They need to build "cosmopolitan capacity" to understand and respond to global challenges and opportunities.Too much is at stake for California-its citizens, government, firms and non-governmental organizations-to leave thinking and acting on international affairs to the federal government and to East Coast think tank experts. This volume shows Californians how to succeed in an ever more interconnected world.

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