Introduction / Jonathan Friedman and Christopher Chase-Dunn -- Escaping a closed universe : world-system crisis, regional dynamics and the rise of Aegean palatial society / Johnny Persson -- The final collapse of the Mediterranean-Egyptian Near Eastern bronze age as a global systemic phenomenon...

Modern globalization (which includes free flows of trade and factors of production across frontiers, stable rates of exchange, the containment of warfare and mercantilism, the preservation of the environment and latterly the protection of cities against rogue states and terrorism) are among the...