Contemporary World 1st Exam

Nationalists are resisting “globalization”

Pertains to the integration of national markets to a wider global market signified by an increase in free trade

Activists speak of the “anti-globalization” movement in the 1990’s

Act of opposing trade deals among countries facilitated and promoted by international organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO)

Manfred Steger described globalization process as

The expansion and intensification of social relations and consciousness across world-time and across world-space.

Expansion

refers to both the creation of new social networks and the multiplication of existing connections that cut across traditional, political, economic, cultural, and geographic boundaries.

Intensification

expansion, stretching and acceleration of networks

The last definition of Steger (people’s perception about time and space)

Globalization processes do not occur merely at an objective, material level but they also involve the subjective plane of human consciousness.

Difference between globalization vs globalism

• Globalization - Represents the many processes that allow for the expansion and intensification of global connection

• Globalism- widespread belief among powerful people that the global integration of economic markets is beneficial for everyone as it spread freedom and democracy across the world.

Arjun appadurai

• Different kinds of globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration which he calls “scapes”

• There are multiple globalizations

Ethnoscape

refers to the global movement of people

Mediascape

About the flow of culture

Technoscape

Circulation of mechanical goods and software

Ideoscape

Realm wherein political ideas move around

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)

• Organization of 189 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty around the world

• regards “Economic globalization” as a historical process representing the result of human innovation and technological progress.

The World Bank

international development organization owned by 189 countries.

What is the role of of the world bank?

Reduce poverty by lending money to the governments of its poorer members so that they can improve their economies and the standard of living of their people.

Silk Road

Oldest known international trade route.

Who asked the question: “When did full economic globalization start?”

HIstorians Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giraldez

Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giraldez

• globalization began when “all important populated continent began to exchange products continuously— both with each other directly and indirectly via other continents— and in values sufficient to general crucial impacts on all trading partners.”

Galleon Trade

• Took place during the age of mercantilism, during the 16th century until the 18th century, countries, mainly in Europe, competed with one another to sell more goods in order to increase their country’s income.

• Competed with one another to sell more goods in order to increase own income

• Imposed high tariffs, prohibited colonies from trading with other countries, limited trade channels, subsidized exports.

The Gold Standard

• 1867

• Adopted at an international monetary conference in Paris

• To Establish a common system that would enable more efficient trade and, at the same time, prohibit isolationism of the mercantilist era.

• Result to development of a common basis for currency prices as well as fixed exchange rate system

Great Depression

• A global economic crisis in the 1920’s-1930’s

• Significantly depleted government resources

• Considered the worst and longest experienced by the West

Fiat Currencies

• What the world economy operates on today

• Currencies that are not backed by precious metals and whose values are determined by their cost relative to other currencies

1944 United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference

The Bretton Woods System was created

Bretton Woods System

Prevent past catastrophes from happening again and impacting international connections.

John Maynard Keynes

Believed that a country experiences economic crises not when it does not have sufficient funds; rather, happens when money is not being spent'; thus moved.

Global Keynesianism

Active participation of governments in managing economic crises

What is the first financial institution that the Delegates at Bretton Woods agreed to create?

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) or the World Bank - Responsible for funding postwar reconstruction projects.

What is the second financial institution that the Delegates at Bretton Woods agreed to create?

International Monetary Fund (IMF) - The global lender of last resort to prevent individual countries from spiraling into credit crises.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)

• 1947

• Reduce tariffs and other hindrances to free trade.

Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC)

imposed an embargo in response to the decision of the United States and other countries to resupply the Israeli military with the needed arms during the Yom Kippur war hence, the price of oil rose sharply.

Staglflation

decline in economic growth and employment (stagnation) takes place alongside a sharp increase in prices (inflation)

Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman

Argued that the governments’ practice of pouring money into their economies had caused inflation by increasing the demand for goods without necessarily increasing the supply.

Neoliberalism

• Contemporarily used to refer market-oriented reform policies such as “eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets, lower trade barriers” and reducing state influence in the economy, especially through privatization and austerity

World Trade Organization

A new organization founded in 1995 to continue the tariff reduction under the GATT.

Washington Consensus

• Policies forwarded by the WTO

• Government expenditure should be kept to a bare minimum in order to minimize debt

• Ronald Reagan - U.S.

• Margaret Thatcher - U.K

Proponents of Neoliberalism

Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009

Greatest recent repudiation

Mortgage-backed securities (MBS)

Banks that were lending house owners’ money pooled mortgage payments and sold them

Internationalization

is not equal to globalization; however it is a major part of globalization

Country

Nation-state

State

A country and its government

A state has four attributes

1. Exercises authority over a specific population, aka citizens

2. It governs a specific territory

3. Has a structure of governments that crafts various rules that people (society) follow

4. The state has sovereignty over its territory

Soverignity

refers to internal and external authority

Nation according to Benedict Anderson

an imagined community

Treaty of Westphalia

Set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty Years’ War Between major continental powers of Europe

Napoleon Bonaparte

believed in spreading the principles of the French Revolution— liberty, equality, fraternity

Napoleonic Wars

1803-1815

Napoleonic Code

forbade birth privileges, encouraged freedom or religion, and promoted meritocracy in government service.

Klemens Von Metternich

Architect of Concert of Europe

Concert of Europe

alliance of “great powers” that sought to restore the sovereignty of states.

Great Powers

United Kingdom, Austria, Prussia, Russia

Internationalism

A system of heightened interaction between various sovereign states, particularly the desire for increased cooperation and solidarity among states and peoples

Two broad categories of Internationalism

• Liberal Internationalism

• Socialist Internationalism

Immanuel Kant

• First major thinker of liberal internationalism, 18th century German Philosopher

• Establish a continuously growing state consisting of various nations which will ultimately include the nations of the world.

Jeremy Bentham

• 18th Century, British Philosopher

• Advocated the creation of “international law”

• Believed that the objective global legislators should aim to propose legislation that would create the greatest happiness of all nations taken together.

Guiseppe Mazzini

• 19th Century Italian Patriot

• Major critic of the Metternich system

• Reconcile nationalism with liberal internationalism

• Free, independent states would be the basis of an equally free, cooperative international system

Woodrow Wilson

• United States President (1913-1921)

• Mazzini influenced his thinking

• Became one of the most prominent advocate for the creation of the League of Nations

Principle of Self Determination by Woodrow Wilson

The belief that the world’s nation had a right to a free and sovereign government

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, Japan

Allied Powers

US, UK, France, Holland, Belgium

Liberal Internationalism’s principles

1. Form common international principles

2. Enshrined the principles of cooperation and respect among nation-states

3. Called for democracy and self-determination

Karl Marx

• Mazzini

• Emphasized economic equality, dividing the world into classes rather than countries

Friedrich Engels

• Co-author of Karl Marx

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

• a socialist revolution seeking to overthrow the state and alter the economy, the proletariat “had no nation.”

• Famous battle cry: “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.”

The Socialist International (SI)

• Union of European Socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889

  • Declaration of May 1 as Labor Day

  • Creation of an International Women’s Day

  • Campaign for an 8-hour Workday

Vladimir Lenin

• Leader of the Bolshevik Party

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

• The Bolsheviks did not believe in obtaining power for the working class through elections

• Exhorted the revolutionary “vanguard” parties to lead the revolutions across the world, using methods of terror if necessary

• Communist party

Communist International

served as the central body for directing communist parties all over the world.

Joseph Stalin

Dissolved Communist International and Re-established the Communist International as the Communist Information Bureau

International Non-Government Organizations

commonly used to refer to international intergovernmental organiziations or groups that are primarily made up of member-states

First power of IO’s

Power of classification

• They create powerful global standards

Second power of IO’s

Have the ability to change the meaning of words

• IOs are seen as legitimate sources of information for states, organization, and individuals. As a result, meanings they generate have an impact on a variety of policies

Third power of IO’s

Have the power to diffuse norms

• Norms are accepted codes of conduct that may not be strict laws but produce regularity in behavior

• They carry some form of authority because they are staffed with experts in various fields

Most Prominent IO

United Nations

UN is divided into five active organs

1. The General Assembly

2. Security Council

3. Economic and Social Council

4. International Court of Justice

5. Secretariat

General Assembly (GA)

• Most represented body in the UN

• main deliberative policy making and representative organ

  • Decisions on important questions, such as those on peace and security

  • Admission of new members

  • Budgetary matters

Security Council (SC)

• The most powerful

• 15 members: 10 two terms in GA, 5 from the P5

• In charge of evaluating whether a threat to the peace or an act of aggression exists

P5

China, France, Russia, UK, US

Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

• Principal body for coordination, policy review, policy dialogue and recommendations on social and environmental issues as well as the implementation of internationally agreed development goals

• Central Platform for discussions on sustainable development

International Court of Justice

• Settle, in accordance with international law, legal disputes submitted to it by states and to give advisory opinions referred to it by authorized United Nations organs and specialized agencies

• Disputes between states that voluntarily submit themselves to the court for arbitration.

Secretariat

• Consists of the “Secretary-General and ten of thousands of international UN staff members who carry out the day-to-day work of the UN as mandated by the General Assembly and the organization’s other principal organs

• Serve as a kind of international civil service

• Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity as UN employees, not as state representatives

A story of Gio, Latif and the Laksa

Shows how globalization operates at multiple, intersecting levels

The Model UN activity that Gio and Latif participated in is an

International competition about international politics

Globalism according to Joseph Nye

Seeks to describe and explain nothing more than a world which is characterized by networks of connections that span multi-continental distances.

Social Relation

When a state or nation befriend other state or nation which gradually result to a more concrete and stabilize relationships

Social Consciousness

Done in order to create social relation and social consciousness between nations and states.

Financescapes

Refers to the flow of money across political borders

Mercantilism

Economic practice by which governments used their economies to augment state power at the expense of other countries

Open Trade System

Based on multilaterally agree ruled which is simple enough and rests largely on commercial common sense

International Trading System

Many thousands of unilateral, bilateral, regional, and multilateral rules and agreements among more than two hundred nations