I.

MODULE ONE: WHAT IS THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Introduction to Module One

This lesson will help students do the following:

1. Articulate what makes globalization contemporary

2. Identify the conceptions of globalization and its underlying philosophies
3. Identify the definition of globalization that will be adopted for the course
4. Analyze the diffusion of the nation-state from the treaty of Westphalia to the wave of
contemporary nation-state building.
5. Establish the concept of “Nationhood” in the Westphalia Treaty.
6. Assess the role of colonialism in shaping global political and economic hierarchy of
societies of today.
7. Explain the effects of globalization on governments.
8. Identify the institutions that govern international relations.

Given the state of world affairs, it only makes sense to talk about how globalization forces led us
to our respective situations of taking classes through the internet and most of the time, confined to
our homes. Global events are happening at this very moment and we are all part of them: the
COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination and the shift to online classes, which began last year.

The coronavirus pandemic has reshaped the world. What began as a mysterious pneumonia-
like illness in Wuhan, China, has spread—two to three people at a time—across 219 countries
and territories1.
In the beginning the spread of COVID-19 appeared to be contained within China and the cruise
ship “Diamond Princess,” which formed the major clusters of the virus.

Figure 1 See:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/victoriaforster/202
0/03/22/what-have-scientists-learned-from-
using-cruise-ship-data-to-learn-about-covid-
19/?sh=3bfbc0f9406d

1
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/graphics/mapping-coronavirus-infections-across-the-globe
By April 2020, over 210 countries and territories are affected by the virus, with Europe, the USA,
and Iran forming the new cluster of the virus. The USA has the highest number of confirmed
COVID-19 cases, whereas India and China, despite being among the most population-dense
countries in the world, have managed to constrain the infection rate by the implementation of a
complete lockdown with arrangements in place to manage the confirmed cases2.

Look back to the moments and events that led to the global spread of COVID-19 through the video
by the Wall Street Journal here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isrrSE_d9EM

The goal of this module is to provide an introduction to the basic concepts related to the study of
globalization. The first lesson introduces globalization by providing the various definitions of
globalization and shows how these definitions are contextualized in the Mindanaoan setting. The
suggested teaching-learning activity in page __ will aid the students in establishing what
definition will be adopted by your class as well as formulating their personal definition of
globalization. Lesson 2 provides a brief background on how nations were established before the
advent of globalization. Lesson 3 which is about the interstate system discusses how nations
interact in the globalized world order. These lessons lay the groundwork in preparing the students
for a detailed analysis of globalization in the later modules. You may a lot up to 2 sessions for
each lesson.
Key concepts to be covered in the lessons in this module include:
Globalization
Nation, state and nation-state
Imagined communities, global imagined communities
Colonialism
Westphalian Treaty

2
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00216/full
The suggested assignment for this module aim to expand students’ appreciation of the how
global trade and exchange of cultures through the “The China Ship” series by the South China
Morning Post. In its 4 chapters, students will learn about the Philippine’s role in the early forms
of global trading in the late 16th century. Globalization is believed to have begun when
circumnavigation route between Asia and the Americas was charted by Ferdinand Magellan and
Juan Sebastian Elcano in 1522. This route, which celebrates its 500th anniversary next year in
2022, kicked-off 250 years of trade between Asia and the rest of the world.

The Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation. Read more at

https://multimedia.scmp.com/culture/article/spanish-galleon/chapter_01.html

Photo source https://multimedia.scmp.com/culture/article/spanish-galleon/img/chapter_01_map01.jpg

Lesson 1: Introducing the Contemporary World

Right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the World Economic Forum released
its report on The Future of Jobs Report 2020 which revealed how the job market was affected
by the pandemic-induced lockdowns. The infographics below shows the future
of Job landscape and the top 10 skills relevant by 2025.

Figure 2 more at https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020/in-full/infographics-

e4e69e4de7
Figure 3 More at https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2020/in-full/infographics-
e4e69e4de7
Take a look at the skills and jobs listed by WEF as “growing job demand” and “declining job
demand”. What do you think are the expertise and skills that students are gaining from their
respective programs and in which category do these skills belong? Do you think the skills
and expertise that they will gain from college will still be in demand once they graduate? Will
they be able to use these skills and expertise in their own locale or can they use these to get
a job anywhere in the world? These are questions that are crucial not only for you but your
students as well. After all, students would want to know if what they learned in college would
be relevant to society once they graduate.

These questions reveal that it is crucial for colleges and universities in the Philippines to
prepare students on how to stay competitive in a constantly evolving jobs market of the
future. Central to the success of future workers is a motivation and agility to advance and
adjust to the emerging roles and skills needed by their respective workplaces and to take
advantage of new opportunities through continuous retraining and upskilling. By
understanding what the contemporary world is all about, this subject therefore aims to
prepare students on what they can expect as they go out of the classrooms and into the
workplace. It is therefore, important to define and understand globalization, the
phenomenon that is continually shaping modern workplaces that will welcome them when
they finish their college education.

Defining Globalization

SAMPLE PHOTO

Having established globalization as a phenomenon that we need to master, we will now

define what it is exactly. This lesson will focus on the discussion of how globalization is
defined in Anthony Gidden’s (2007) proposal as "the intensification of worldwide social
relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped
by events occurring many miles away and vice versa”. We experience the process of
globalization when we purchase a product from your local sari-sari store that was
manufactured in China and when you find out about the current events in New Zealand
through the internet. Consider how immigration policies of US President Donald Trump can
have great impacts on the goals and actions of Filipino professionals. This is what Giddens
meant when he says globalization is when “local happenings are shaped by events occurring
many miles away”.
Now, from the same definition, let us delineate further the assumptions that underpin how
globalization occurs:
a. Globalization involves the intensification of social relations worldwide.
b. Social relations may come in the form of interactions, conversations,
expression of emotions, etc.
c. Globalization links worldwide distant localities.
d. Globalization enables for events many miles away shape to local happenings,
and vice versa.

Another way that we can understand how globalization occurs is through the concept of
“global village” introduced by Marshall McLuhan. In his book, Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making
of Typographic Man (1962), Mcluhan introduced the term “global village” to describe how
mass communication technologies such as newspapers, books, radio, television and movies
has created a community that spans the entire world. Today, we include the internet, cable tv
and social media as electronic media that binds the global village.

Lesson 2: Establishing the Nation/ How Nations began

After establishing that globalization is a
process that renders the entire world into a
single village, in this lesson, we will look
back to an essential component necessary in
the process of globalization: the nation.
While we presupposed in the previous
lesson that globalization occurs when
locales are linked and shaped by worldwide
events, locales essentially belong to nations.
A simple way of understanding how
Early Communities in the Philippines
globalization occurs is nations interacting Source of Photo: Filipino Heritage: Making of A Nation, Volume 4
with each other using a common language (commonly English), and through the platforms
provided by the internet and organizations like the United Nations. In this lesson,
characteristics of a nation that enable it to interact with other nations will be identified.
However, it is appropriate to discuss first how nations began.

In “Globalization: Prospects and Problems”, author Jo Ann Chirico (2013) proposes that
nations began from communities made up of a group of people who have something in
common: they may be sharing the land where they source their sustenance in which case
they may need a common set of values and rules necessary for interaction while sharing the
land and its resources. As the interactions within and among these small communities
increased, their interdependence with each other grew. This enlarged their sense of
community and from this grew the concept of a nation. Community remains the basis of a
nation, a people who feel they share a common identity and belong together . The idea of a
nation developed gradually as the way of identifying an “us”.

Lesson 2 is dedicated to the story of how communities became nations, how nations became
empires and how wars that empires led to an agreement we now know as the Westphalian
Treaty of 1648. At end of this lesson, students are expected to identify the principles laid
down in The Westphalian Treaty that became the stepping stone of the modern international
system.

Instructors may refer to the link provided for a brief discussion by UNESCO on what nation-
state means including its two components, nation and state:
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-
migration/glossary/nation-state/ .

In Benedict Anderson’s seminal work, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and
Spread of Nationalism, nation is described as an “imagined political community”. For
Anderson, a nation does not merely exist as the people and its government but that it also
exists subjectively within people’s minds as an image.
To understand the concept of imagined communities, you can read the speech of University
President Fr Roberto C Yap SJ during the 2012 Kalayaan celebrations here:
https://www.xu.edu.ph/84-xu-web-info/729-xavier-days-update You can also read more
on Anderson’s work through the summary provided in this link:
https://www2.bc.edu/marian-simion/th406/readings/0420anderson.pdf

Forging the Westphalian Peace

The Course of Empire: Destruction,1836 by Thomas Cole

Largely in Europe, nations grew out of warfare. The continent experienced religious and
political wars, almost without end, from the 14th to the 17th century. By this time, the Holy
Roman Empire has weakened and disintegrated into a patchwork of princely dominions that
frequently “fought against the empire and one another for sovereignty, territory, and
freedom”. In these wars, the concept of the nation became the protector of the people that
identified themselves as belonging to the community, against the Empire and other nations.
Thus, the emergence of a national identity composed of the individual identities of the people
that professed belonging to the nation or community.

As the wars raged on, the idea of an empire (one ruler for all of humankind) became
unpopular and nationalism, the right of a group with a common identity and heritage to
govern itself, gained appeal. Nations as we know it today and the global system, such as the
United Nations or UN wherein nations allow themselves to be governed by, emerged from
the ruins of these wars. By mid-1600’s many of the European monarchs were bankrupt at
the expense of wars they waged against each other. By then, most of them had already signed
agreements with one another and in 1648, they met in the Westphalia region of Germany to
broker the peace deal now known as the Peace of Westphalia. While the treaty was meant to
end the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, it is now widely recognized to have established the
international system that recognized sovereign states as its core. Chirico (2013) describes
the consequential outcomes of the treaty:

“As a consequence of the Treaty (or Treaties) of Westphalia, secular political power
was stripped from religious authorities. . . Rather than the empire dictating the official
religion of a territory, monarchies gained control over religion within their borders.
France and Sweden gained disputed territories. Religious membership became
voluntary for most individuals, but state membership became mandatory. Trade and
commercial activities usurped power from religious authority and to some extent also
from the crown. Religious and political freedoms from empire were established, not
for individuals, but for nations. In short, nations gained sovereignty.” (Chirico, 2013).

The Ratification of the Treaty of

Münster, 15 May 1648 by Gerard ter
Borch.

License of use:
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/painti
ngs/image-download-terms-of-
use?img=n-0896-00-000029-wz-
pyr.tif&invno=NG896

In effect, the Peace of Westphalia became the basis of “an association of states, each of which
claimed sovereignty within its political boundaries and legitimacy based on the nation
within” (Chirico, 2013 p61). This is called “the Westphalia system of states”, which remains
today as the defining characteristic of the modern nation-state. In short, the Treaty of
Westphalia established in 1648 shaped how nations behave within their territories and
prescribed how they should behave towards other nations.

While the Peace of Westphalia did not bring lasting peace to Europe, it “established the
principle of state sovereignty and the basis of global governance” (Chirico, 2013 p62) that is
still present today. Through the treaty:
Monarchs granted themselves and one another the authority to speak for, make
commitments for, and sign treaties on behalf of the people they claimed to represent.
In return, they obligated themselves to care for the common good, protecting people’s
security, economy, and other interests. States granted themselves a monopoly on the
use of violence within their borders, and the right to use violence in protection of their
people. Without the power to compel people to act, states could not make promises
on the international stage.

Instructors and student can read the entire chapter entitled Setting the Stage Foundations
Globalization by JoAnn Chirico (2013) in this link:
https://us.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-
binaries/56780_Chapter_3_Chirico_Globalization.pdf.

This chapter also provides the important principles of the treaty of Westphalia which were
considered as the foundation of global governance of that period.

Lesson 3: The Global Interstate System

As discussed in lesson 2, the Westphalian theory was the model for the modern interstate
system. But what exactly is the interstate system? In the final lesson of this module, students
will get to know how modern nations deal with each other in a global interstate system by
understanding imperialism and colonialism.
Imperialism refers to the “various methods” that one country employs to gain political,
economic and military control over another country or geographic area (Ritzer, Dean, 2015).
Colonialism on the other hand is the one of the methods in which one country takes control
of a geographic area that involves the settlement of colonists (ex. Spaniards in the
Philippines) and formal mechanisms of control such as the appointment of a governor
general to the Philippines or viceroy to India. The key difference between imperialism and
colonialism is that “imperialism means the practice; the theory; and the attitudes of the
dominating core in ruling the distant territory” while ‘colonialism’, which is usually the
consequence of imperialism, is the implanting of settlements on distant territory” (Ashcroft,
Griffiths, and Tiffin 1998). The era when colonial masters depart from their former colonies
has been labelled as post-colonial period. To sum up, imperialism and colonialism are the
ways in which nations of the past asserted dominance and influence on each other. The fact
that we now have concepts such as neo-colonialism and “US imperialism” means that these
mechanisms have not ended yet.

The European model of the state formed out of the treaty of Westphalia was brought to the
colonized lands. Beginning in the late 1400’s, European states, especially the Spaniards and
Portuguese, claimed territories over vast areas of sparsely settled lands in the Americas,
Asia, Africa and Oceania and marked the boundaries in their new territories wherein they
exercised dominion. The “Age of Discovery” began with the Spaniards, who explored and
widely conquered the Caribbean, Mexico, the southern portions of what was to become the
United States, and Central and South America.

You can watch a video about the Magellan-Elcano Circumnavigation here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFdiX8mj0Es

Spain was able to extend its dominion to the Pacific when it colonized the Philippines and
Guam. The Portuguese empire on the other hand included Brazil, the largest colonial
territory in South America; Angola and Mozambique in Africa; and Goa in South Asia.
However, at the start of early 19th century, rebellions and wars for independence ended the
first phase of European colonialism. In 1825, most of Spain’s colonies were politically
independent but they managed to hold on to Cuba and the Philippines until 1898 (Kottak,
2011).

How Colonialism shaped current global political and economic hierarchy

Colonialism left many territories all over the world with environments severely ravaged,
education of most populations neglected, severe ethnic and religious tensions grew. Most
former colonies had economies and local infrastructures for serving the export of
agricultural crops and minerals to their colonial masters. Because most had weak to no
democratic institutions, many of these colonies were unprepared for statehood or economic
prosperity in the post-colonial period (Chirico, 2013)

In the post-colonial era, many nations, including the Philippines, defined their borders based
on the lines drawn by their former colonial masters. Hence, in understanding how nations
conduct their affairs today in the global stage, scholars need to consider their colonial past.
As Ritzer and Dean (2015) point out, postcolonialism relates “to the various developments
that take place in a former colony after the colonizing power departs”. While colonial systems
have largely disappeared, this power relationship endured through multinational
corporations and global financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. These two
institutions, which are largely dominated by former colonizing states, offer loans to countries
that are mostly former colonies. By setting the terms of these global loans and repayment,
the IMF and World Bank ensure financial rewards flow back to the wealthy states.

Although 130 former colonies gained their independence over the course of the twentieth
century, exploitation continues today through neocolonialism (neo is Greek for “new”), a
new form of global power relationships that involves not direct political control but
economic exploitation through multinational corporations (Macionis, 2012). A
multinational corporation is a large business that operates in many countries. Corporate
leaders often impose their will on countries where they do business to create favorable
economic conditions for the operation of their corporations, just as colonizers did in the past
(Bonanno, Constance, & Lorenz, 2000). Like many former colonies, the Philippines is an
example of a nation struggling economically as a result of hundreds of years of colonial
exploitation by the Spaniards and the Americans.

Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory

Post-colonial geopolitical relations has designated some countries, mostly former colonies,
as sources of natural resources, cheap labor, and markets. Colonialism essentially left a
legacy of weak governments dominated by oligarchies or dictators leaving most of the
population deprived of basic services and unable to rise from poverty.

Understanding further how colonialism shaped global political and economic hierarchy of
societies of today is through Immanuel Wallerstein’s model of the “capitalist world economy”.
Wallerstein suggests that the prosperity of some nations and the poverty and dependency of
other countries is intentional as a result of the global economic system (Macionis, 2012).
The World Systems Theory is also discussed in Lesson Two of Module Two as a form of
economic globalization. For now, we will use this theory to understand how the legacies of
colonialism are being manifested in modern states. Wallerstein attributes the structure of
the global economy to colonization that began 500 years that enabled Europeans to gather
wealth from the rest of the world.

Wealthy nations are designated by Wallerstein as the core of the world economy. Through
colonialism, these countries funneled raw materials from around the world to Western
Europe which powered the Industrial Revolution. On the other hand, low-income countries
are the periphery of the world economy. Through colonialism, these poor nations provide
raw materials, cheap labor, and a vast market for industrial products that enrich the core
countries through their multinational corporations. Consequently, the world economy
benefits rich societies by generating more profits for wealthy countries at the expense of
poor countries.

The world economy, thus, makes poor nations dependent on rich ones. Today,
multinational corporations operate profitably worldwide, channeling wealth to North
America, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan. For a more comprehensive discussion of
the world systems theory (Martínez Vela, 2001), you may read:
http://web.mit.edu/esd.83/www/notebook/WorldSystem.pdf

How Globalization affects national governments:

As Wallerstein argues, national governments in the periphery are sometimes left with no
choice but to participate in globalization even as this renders them in exploitative
relationships with the core countries. This is one way that globalization affects governance
in some states. Another way that globalization affects governments is that it makes possible
for nations and citizens from all over the world to be more connected and interdependent
economically, politically, and socially. How globalization creates an ecology of economic,
political and social interconnectedness and interdependence is further elaborated in the
excerpt below from Chirico’s (2013) Chapter on “Globalizing Political Culture and State
Governance”:
 Globalization affects internal changes in states through external and internal
pressures. External pressures on states compel conformity to global standards/
Globalization pressures confront states with a variety pf potential costs if they refuse
to comply and promise benefits if they do. States conform to global standards to gain
admission to regional and interest-based alliances, such as the ASEAN and APEC, to
receive loans, attract investments, gain trading partners, or simply maintain a good
reputation and legitimacy in the eyes of their domestic audience, their allies and the
world generally.

Under the terms of Westphalia, whoever held power was recognized by the rest of the
world as the government, regardless of how they attained their rule. Bestowing
legitimacy on a state government is an important function of globalization. Internal
pressures for change come from citizens and other state actors such as institutions
and NGOs.

Over the course of globalization, the structure and dynamics of governance within
countries has continued to evolve. Pressures to develop the structural mechanisms
and normative principles on which governance is judged have never been greater.
Now there is no state function--- from providing welfare, granting protection of rights,
to security and the conduct of foreign affairs—that is unaffected by globalization.

The intensity of countries’ interdependence and the breadth and depth of global
systems has put governance within and among countries at the center of globalization
debates. How countries govern matters to other countries and to the mechanics of
global economy, polity, and social community. The pressures on states to conform to
global standards result from the diffusion of emerging global political culture and
participation in global systems.

The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) is a useful discussion point in understanding

“how countries govern matters to other countries and to the mechanics of global economy”.
The WGI is a set of composite indicators governance published by the World Bank. A
country’s score in the WGI determines its global reputation and its likelihood of attracting
foreign investments, tourism, financial and other forms of aid. In other words, the WGI is
similar to Westphalia Treaty in that it is a set of norms that countries abide by in order to
create and maintain relations with each other.

These set of norms set by the WGI are elaborated in its six dimensions of governance
including: Voice and Accountability; Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism;
Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality; Rule of Law; and Control of Corruption. In
western standards, each of these aspect of governance matters for development, and so
unsurprisingly rich countries on average rank higher in the WGI than poor countries do
(Kaufmann & Kraay, 2017). More information on the WGI may be found at
https://info.worldbank.org/governance/wgi/#home.