by Tibor R. Machan

About the author: Tibor R. Machan is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and the editor of the book Business Ethics in the Global Market.

Globalization, some say, is a form of imperialism. Along with the supposed invasiveness of American culture—via Hollywood movies, McDonald’s hamburgers, and Coca-Cola products—globalization is seen by some as the equivalent of international aggression.

A similar charge was made some years ago at a United Nations conference in Vienna; representatives of some nondemocratic nations complained that the idea of human rights was intrusive and imperialistic and thus threatened the sovereignty of their countries. Some serious political thinkers still object to the very notion of universal ethical and political principles, as if human beings as such didn...