BY J. Michael Adams and Angelo Carfagna

Sectarian violence engulfs Iraq, armed militias commit genocide in Darfur.

India and Pakistan teeter on the brink of nuclear peril, hostility perpetually sustains the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and cultural clashes are so pervasive that a cartoon ignites a powder keg. We are seemingly everywhere clutching at each other's throats.

Wasn't globalization supposed to unite us? What went wrong?

Op-Ed in the Daily Record of July 2, 2006

In the 1990s, the rise of the Internet and new communications technologies helped us connect with those from around the world faster than ever before, while the growth of the global economy linked nations on an unprecedented scale. Some of us thought we really were becoming one world.

Then came Sept. 11, 2001. Terrorists struck other targets. Wars exploded in Afghanistan and Iraq and conflicts seemed to be everywhere. Suddenly, fewer people were talking about globalization bringing us together.

But is all hope lost? It's impossible to deny that we are torn by divisions.

But we also have common desires and cooperative impulses that have produced dramatic changes. In the midst of the crises of the day, we forget the progress made. Democracy, once the exception around the world, is now the norm. Cruel practices once widely accepted, from slavery to rape and torture, to genocide and the legal subjugation of women and minorities, are now nearly universally condemned and outlawed. In the United States, look at the profound changes enacted through the civil rights, women's and environmental movements. And, while violence generates headlines, the reality is that the number of armed conflicts has dropped since the early 1990s.

International agreements and alliances have been formed to address everything from trading regulations to ozone-destroying chemicals to the rights of children. Individuals and groups now have tremendous potential to influence governments, shape market realities and help determine global labor and environmental standards. Our favorite example is the inspiring work of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, or ICBL. Just five years after its formation, it was responsible for an international treaty prohibiting the use of antipersonnel landmines.

These international collaborations are necessary to positively direct the forces of globalization. Globalization has not gone away. Finances still flow across continents, and companies and countries continually exchange goods, services and ideas. Most significantly, our greatest problems do not carry passports. Challenges like terrorism, climate change and AIDS cross borders at will.

Tools of destruction

The stakes are high and the clock is ticking. We've had centuries to develop bonds of nationalism, yet because of today's tools of destruction, we may not have much time to develop a sense of world citizenship.

World citizenship is not a new concept. Advocates range from Thomas Paine to Martin Luther King Jr., from the Greek stoics to the Dalai Lama. In the words of King, "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny." As Alexandr Solzhenitsyn said, our "sole salvation lies in everyone making everything his business."

We must become world citizens who recognize the value of national heritage, but who understand the interconnected nature of our planet and who are willing to act on behalf of people everywhere. To do so, we must learn more about other cultures. Schools and universities need to introduce more international lessons, expand language programs, extend study-abroad opportunities, welcome international students and encourage cross-cultural dialogues.

Outside of the classroom, friends and family members play an influential role in the development of the next generation. Help children look through the eyes of others and continually show them how to translate values into action. Always search for alternative viewpoints. Use the power of your voice to demand the media better cover our world and to demand that teachers and schools adapt to the global age.

Education must be followed by action. Anyone can get involved in local or global projects that deliver meals to the elderly in the neighborhood, expand township recycling programs, clear landmines in Cambodia and Mozambique, bring life-saving vaccines to children and the sick in Indonesia and India, or provide educational opportunities for girls in Jordan and Bolivia. We can also lobby our governments to adopt policies that benefit people down the block and around the globe.

When 13-year-old Rachel Koretsky learned of the killings in Sudan, she began educating others and raising funds to send overseas. She wrote letters, held a raffle, sold "Save Darfur"bracelets and placed donation cans in stores. She's raised nearly $14,000! She must have been encouraged when the main rebel group and the government reached a peace agreement in May. President Bush then pledged an increase in U.S. food aid, and said the accord represented "the beginnings of hope."

Despite the latest calamities and conflicts, we do have reason for hope. And hope requires action. We now have the opportunity and, most importantly, the need to come together as world citizens and address global challenges. We have the need to think and act like 13-year old Rachel Koretsky. The choice is ours.