The Contemporary World

Midterm Reviewer
Second Semester

UNIT 1: THE STRUCTURES OF GLOBALIZATION

LESSON 1: WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?

Globalization as an economic process.

- The integration of the national markets to a wider global market signified by the
increased free trade

Manfred Steger- globalization is the “expansion and intensification of social relations and
consciousness across world-time and across world-space.”
Expansion- 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 these networks.

Globalization vs. Globalism

Globalization- the many processes that allow for the expansion and intensification of global
connections
Globalism- widespread belief among people that the global integration of economic markets is
beneficial for everyone, since it spreads freedom and democracy across the people.

Arjun Appadurai- globalization occur on multiple and intersecting dimensions of integration he

calls “scapes.”
- there are multiple globalizations.

LESSON 2: THE GLOBALIZATION OF WORLD ECONOMICS

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards “economic globalization” as a historical process
representing the result of human innovation and technological progress.
- Increasing integration of economies around the world through the movement of goods,
services and capital across borders.
International Trading Systems are not new. The oldest was the Silk Road—a network of
pathways in the ancient world that spanned from China to what is now the Middle East and to
Europe. International, but not global, because it had no ocean routes.
1571- Galleon Trade- connected Manila, Philippines and Acapulco, Mexico.

Reina Gerona Aureo | BA Pol Sci 1A

Galleon Trade- part of the age of mercantilism. 16th to 18th century- countries in Europe
competed with one another to sell more goods as a means to boost their country’s income
(monetary reserves).
Mercantilism was a system of global trade with multiple restrictions.

1867- a more open trade system emerged.

Following the lead of UK, USA and other European nations adopted the gold standard in an
international monetary conference in Paris. Goal: create a common system that would allow for
more efficient trade and prevent isolationism of the mercantilist era.
Value of gold—common basis for currency prices and a fixed exchange rate system.
Returning to a pure standard became more difficult as the Great Depression started during the
1920s up to the 1930s. This depression was the worst and longest recession ever experienced
by the Western world.
Barry Eichengreen- the recovery of the US really began when the US gov’t was able to free up
money to spend on reviving the economy.
Stock markets crashed in 1973-1974 after the US stopped linking dollar to gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system. Result: a phenomenon called stagflation, in which a decline in economic
growth and employment (stagnation) takes place alongside a sharp increase in prices (inflation).

Neoliberalism- 1980s onward- became the codified strategy of the United States Treasury
Department, World bank, IMF, WTO.
- Advocates like US Pres Ronald Reagan and British PM Margaret Thatcher justified their
reduction is gov’t spending by comparing national economies to households. Thatcher-
mother who reined in overspending to reduce national debt.

However, governments are NOT households. (1) Governments can print money, while
household cannot. (2) Taxation systems of govt can provide them a steady flow of
income.

Economic is just one window into the phenomenon of globalization: it is not the entire
thing.

Reina Gerona Aureo | BA Pol Sci 1A

LESSON 3: A HISTORY OF GLOBAL POLITICS: CREATING AN INTERNATIONAL ORDER

Internationalization does not equal globalization, although it is a major part of it.

International Relations as a facet of globalization, because states/governments are key drivers
of global processes.
KEY ATTRIBUTES OF WORLD POLITICS
- First, countries or states are independent and govern themselves.
- Second, these countries interact w/ each other through diplomacy.
- Third, there are international organizations like the UN that facilitate these interactions.
- Fourth, international orgs take on lives of their own.

Nation-state is a relatively modern phenomenon in human history. Two non-interchangeable

terms: nations and states. Not all states are nations and not all nations are states.

State- a country and its government.

Attributes of the state:

1. Citizens or population
2. Territory
3. Government
4. Sovereignty

Nation- Benedict Anderson, “imagined community.”

- Limited because it does not go beyond a given “official boundary”
- Allows one to feel a connection with a community of people even if he/she will never
meet all of them.

Nation and State are closely related because it is NATIONALISM that facilitates state
formation. Sovereignty is one of the fundamental principles of modern state politics. 400
years ago.

Internationalism- others imagined a system of heightened interaction between various

sovereign states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation and unity.

Immanuel Kant- first major thinker of liberal internationalism. Likened the state in a global
system to people living in a given territory. Without a form of world government, the
international system would be chaotic.

Jeremy Bentham (coined the word “international” in 1780)- creation of “international law”
that would govern inter-state relation.

Giuseppe Mazzini- first thinker to reconcile nationalism with liberal internationalism

- An advocate of the unification of various Italian-speaking mini-states and a major critic of
the Metternich system.

Reina Gerona Aureo | BA Pol Sci 1A

Woodrow Wilson- US President, 20th century most prominent internationalist.
- Nationalism is a prerequisite for internationalism.
- His faith in nationalism: forwarded the principle of self-determination- world’s nations had
a right to a free and sovereign government.
- Advocate for the League of Nations: a venue for conciliation and arbitration to prevent
another war. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

League of Nations- unable to prevent another war from breaking out. Despite its failure, the
League gave birth to some of the most task-specific International Organizations: WHO and
ILO. It serves as the blueprint for future forms of international cooperation.

Karl Marx- biggest critic of Mazzini- he did NOT believe in nationalism.

Marx and Friedrich Engels- “Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your
chains.”

Communist International (Comintern)- central body for directing Communist parties all over
the world.

LESSON 4: THE UNITED NATIONS AND CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance- various intersecting processes that create this order.

International non-governmental organizations (NGOs), though not having formal state power,
can lobby individual states to behave in a certain way.
Powerful transnational corporations can likewise have tremendous effects on global labors laws,
environmental legislation and trade policy

International Organizations- commonly used to refer to international intergovernmental

organizations or groups that are primarily made up of member-states.
Powers of IOs:
1. Have the power of classification
-IOs can invent and apply categories, they create powerful global standards.

2. Have the power to fix meanings.

- The meanings they create have effects on various policies.

3. Have the power to diffuse norms.

-IOs do not only classify and fix meanings, they also spread their ideas across the world,
thereby establishing global standards.

Because of these immense powers, IOs can be sources of great good and great harm.

Reina Gerona Aureo | BA Pol Sci 1A

 After the collapse of the League of Nations at the end of World War II, countries that
worried about another global war began to push for the formation of a more lasting
international league: led to the creation the United Nations.

UN: divided into five active organs.

1. The General Assembly (GA) is UN’s main deliberative policymaking and
representative organ. All 193 member states have seats in the GA.
Carlos P. Romulo- GA president from 1949-1950.

2. The Security Council (SC) is considered to be the most powerful. This body consists
of 15 member states. The Permanent Five (P5)—China, France, Russia, the United
Kingdom and the USA.

- SC takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or an act of
aggression. Settle the act by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment
or terms of settlement. Sometimes resort to imposing sanctions or even authorizing the
use of force to maintain or restore international peace and security.
International organizations are the most visible symbols of global governance The UN, in
particular, is the closest to a world government.

LESSON 5: A WORLD OF REGIONS

Regional organizations and/or networks as a way of coping with the challenges of globalization.
Regionalism
- examined in relation to identities, ethics, religion, ecological sustainability and health.
- It is also a process, and must be treated as an “emergent, socially constituted
phenomenon.”
- Regions are not natural or given; they are constructed and defined by policymakers,
economic actors and social movements
Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner
1. Regions are a group of countries located in the same geographically specified area or an
amalgamation of two region or a combination of more than two regions.
2. Regionalization and regionalism should not be interchanged. Former: regional
concentration of economic flows. Latter: a political process characterized by economic
policy cooperation and coordination among countries.

Reasons why countries form regional associations:

1. Military defense.
Example: NATO.
2. Pooling of resources.
Example: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)- Iran, Iraq, Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, to regulate production and sale of oil.

Reina Gerona Aureo | BA Pol Sci 1A

 3. Protect their independence from the pressures of superpower politics.
Example: Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)- Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia and
Yugoslavia- pursue world peace and international cooperation
4. Economic Crisis.
The crisis made ASEAN more “unified and coordinated.”
New Regionalism- “tiny associations that include no more than a few actors and focus on a
single issue, or huge continental unions that address a multitude of common problems from
territorial defense to food security.
- Identified with reformists with the same “values, norms, institutions and system that exist
outside of the traditional, established mainstream systems.”
Strategies and techniques:
1. Initiate social change.
2. Dedicate themselves to specialized causes.

These organizations’ primary power lies in their moral standing and their ability to
combine lobbying with pressure politics. Unfortunately, most of them are poorly financed.

Challenges to Regionalism
1. Resurgent of militant nationalism and populism.
2. European Union- continuing financial crisis
3. ASEAN- disagreement over the extent to which members should sacrifice their
sovereignty for the sake of regional stability.
4. Differing visions of what regionalism should be for.

LESSON 6: GLOBALIZATION OF RELIGION

RELIGION
Concerned with the sacred.
Follows divine commandments
The possibility of communication between
humans and the transcendent. God, Allah
and Yahweh define and judge human action.
Less concerned with wealth and all that
comes along with it.
Shun anything material for complete
simplicity.
Main duty is to live a virtuous, sin-less life.
Aspires to be a saint.
GLOBALISM
Places value on material wealth.
Abides by human-made laws.
How much of human action can lead to the
highest material satisfaction and subsequent
wisdom that status produces.
Skills are more pedestrian as they aim to seal
trade deals, raise profits of enterprises,
enrich themselves
His/her work contributing to the general
progress of the community, the nation, and
economic system
Trains to be a shrewd businessperson.

Religion and globalism CLASH.

Reina Gerona Aureo | BA Pol Sci 1A