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WWII successfully. Furthermore, the end of Cold War meant to the Americans
that their 2IR was to dominate and be in control of global economic markets.
The Soviet Union had failed to challenge them. Then came 9/11 and its
aftermath along the longest continuous war in American history as well as the
continuing battle with fundamental Islamic terrorists. With its own unique and
fractured political debate and power struggles, the United States labored to
make sense of a posteCold War era in which special interests replaced reason
and any movement toward a sound domestic economic policy.
Instead, the American ideological belief in a “market economy,”
entrenched in the late 1960s to mid-1970s, replaced the reality of how gov-
ernment and industry must collaborate and work together. The evidence of the
problems and hardships from “market forces” came initially from a conver-
gence of events in the early part of the 21st century including a global energy
crisis, the dotcomcollapse, and terrorist attacks. Spending and leveraging
money into the market caused the global economic collapse almost a decade
later in October 2008.
The Economist characterized the basic economic problem the best when in
mid-2009, a special issue was published under the title “Modern Economic
Theory,” superimposed on the Bible melting (Economist, July 18e24, 2009).
Basically the case was made that economics is “not a science” in large part
because its theories and resultant data did not predict the global economic
recession that started in the fall of 2008 and continued3 years later. From that
special issue of The Economist in the summer of 2009, an international debate
about conventional modern economics started and continues today.
The GIR impacts the United States at the local level in a completely
different perspective and rational than at the regional, state, or national level.
Infrastructures of energy, water, waste, transportation, and information tech-
nology among others and how they are integrated are the core of the GIR
(Clark and Cooke, 2011). These infrastructure systems need to be compatible
yet integrated with one another. For example, renewable energy power gen-
eration must be used for homes, businesses, hospitals, and nonprofit organi-
zations (government, education, and others) that are metered and monitored as
“smart on-site grids” and also used for the energy in vehicles, mass trains, and
buses, among other transportation infrastructures (Knakmuhs, 2011). Such
“agile energy” or “flexible systems” (Clark and Bradshaw, 2004) allow people
to generate their own power while also being connected to a central power
grid. However, both the local power and central power in the GIR need to be
generated from renewable energy sources, with standby and backup storage
capacity.
There are five key elements for the GIR: (1) energy efficiency and con-
servation; (2) renewable power generation systems; (3) smart grid-connected
sustainable communities; (4) advanced technologies like fuel cells, fly-
wheels, and high-speed rail; and (5) education, training, and certification of
professionals and programs. First, communities and individuals all need to