HAWASSA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIC AND ETHICAL STUDIES

AN EXPLANATORY STUDY OF THE MAJOR CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL ISSUES

NAMES OF GROUP MEMBERS ID NUMBER

1) EDOMIYAS BEYENE DEBISA 1087/14

2) ELENI TEKLE MERESSA 1107/14

3) ELYAS WABIE ESHETIE 1133/14

4) EYASU WAKGARI GINA 1226/14

5) EYERUSALEM KIBRU GEBRE 1234/14

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES HAWASSA UNIVERSITY

SUBMISSION DATE: JANURAY 8, 2023

 TABLE OF CONTENT
CONTENTS PAGE
Table of content ........................................................................................... i

Abstract ....................................................................................................... ii

Introduction................................................................................................... 1

1. Security Challenges...................................................................................1
1.1 Nuclear Proliferation..................................................................................................... 2

1.2 Global Terrorism............................................................................................................. 2

2. Environmental Challenges .........................................................................2

3. Economic Challenges.................................................................................3

4. Social Challenges....................................................................................... 4

5. Severity of Global Challenges................................................................... 5

6. Global Inequality and Global Poverty.........................................................6

7. Clash of Cultures........................................................................................7

Reference......................................................................................................

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Abstract
To say that major global issues and challenges facing humanity is important to international relations would be an understatment. Discussions
and debates concerning adaptation and, if possible, reduction to these issues, strategies and mechanisms to deal with these global challenges
are all proposed at the internatonal level. This study is an explanatory study aimed at exploring the major contemporary global issues humanity
is facing in this century. It begins by identifing the major global issues and challenges, which later helped the identification of the
factors/reasons for the various contemporary problems of the world. To explain the contemporary global challenges data was collected from
diffrent books, websites and articles written by scholars in the field. This socurces are sited at the end of the study under references. The data is
then analyzed and interpreted in relation to the literature. Some cases were analyzed to explain the reason why some parts of the world are
more likely to be affected by political, cultural, environmental and socio-economical challenges, Others were used to show what problems our
world had faced before. The study shows that the global challenges we are facing in this century are subdivided into four catagories. These are:
i) security challenges ii) environmental challenges, iii) economic challenges and iv) social challenges. The study showed issues such as global
terrorism, climate change & global warning, global inequality and poverty, Migration & refugee crises and cultural/civilizational clashes and
identity conflicts are briefly discussed as the most pressing challenges of humanity in the 21st century. The study also discussed the reasons for
and impacts of the global issues under consideration. Then at last discussions on the impact, terminology and diffrent fault lines of cultural
(civilizational) clash on global conflict cooperation and peace or/and war are made.

Key words: global, conflict, challenges, issues, clash, civilization, terrorism, rights,

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Introduction
In the world where there is an organization for the preservation of almost everything, man kind seems to ignore the fact that he himself needs
an organization to preserve his existence. We are prone to think that everything that happens to us is just natural and meant to be. Jonathan
Schell in , The Fate of the Earth, puts it as “...They see the violence that has saturated human history and conclude that to practice violence is
innate to our species. They find the perennial hope that peace can be brought to the earth once and for all, a delusion of the well meaning who
have refused to face the “harsh realities” of international life the realities of self-interest, fear, hatred, and aggression”(1962). Social scientist
would have no difficulty in accepting the claim that we have entered a period in human evolution characterized by the “acceleration in the
velocity of our history and the uncertainty of its trajectory.”The world today is characterized by empowerment of civil society the
decentralization of decision making, the concentration of wealth in the hands of the narrow circle, higher expectation of continued
impovement in the standard of living and growing concern about the sustainability of our development path.To set priorities and values among
the many challenges of the global system is a not an easy task. The complexity of global challenges urges us to make new appraoches that
suitable for dynamic, integrated systems evolving through constant innovation in technologies, forms of communications, patterns of
organization and institutional frameworks. This by itself is another challenge because it involves accompanying and steering these processes to
ensure the utility, setting limits that prevent their being captured by the already rich and powerful for their own benefit, and ultimately
ensuring a just society that guarantees the well-being of every person on the planet.

Security Challenges

The world today may seem to be in disarray. However, by historical standards, it is actually relatively orderly and fixed into place. Those that
were born in the early part of the last century lived (if they were fortunate enough to survive) through a global pandemic, a global recession
and two world wars. Life in prior centuries was even more perilous. In the anicent world the desire to go to war was promoted by the
expectations of victory's benefits. Territorial expansion meant that the nation would benefit more from the taxes collected from the people,
resources of the area controlled, the loot of war coming from the loser nation, and the honor the neighboring nations would give to the
victorious nation. In the new world though the urging desire for war has been outdated. Diffrent political thinkers have argued that major war
between soverign and civilized states may be on its way to extinction. There has been a dramatic increase in recent decades in the price of war
and “diminishing expectations of victory’s benefits". Close international interdependence and the emergence of an integrated global
economy,the growing sophistication and destructive power of weapons systems (including nuclear weapons) have drastically expanded the
scale of the losses in human lives and property associated with the kinds of conflict which, on two occasions, were witnessed in the 20th
century. The world economy has never had higher levels of productive capacity, and average life expectancy is at an all-time high; hence the
potential costs of global war are also at an all-time high. It has been said that if a major war between nations occurs it surely will take
civilization to it's grave and any war occuring after that will be fought with bricks and stones. Furthermore, the rewards of war among states-
loot, land, glory, honor- which for many centuries propelled nations to war, have given way to populations in search of growing prosperity,
social security and various forms of protection. Military conscription is on its way out in most countries and is no longer regarded as an
obligation of citizenship; in many parts of the world, war is increasingly seen as a form of criminal enterprise. Yet there are ongoing military
conflicts around the globe, with the highest level of refugees fleeing war since the end of World War II.

Nevertheless it would be wrong and even misleading to say that the extinction of major wars around the globe means that there's no war
anymore and that people are living in an eternal peace and co-existence. This is because there are still a range of national governments, despite
the clear restrictions on the international use of force set out in the United Nations Charter, that have seemingly not given up their perceived
right to wage war, or at least to prepare for the same there is a vast military industrial complex that underpins today’s system of sovereign
states, and arms races are again accelerating. There are even some experts that assert the idea "a states' soverignity is defined by the
enjoyment of the states to the right and the power to go to war in defense or pursuit of its interests" and these states are ready “to employ war
as the final arbiter, when all instruments of their foreign policy fails, for settling the disputes that arise among them." Based on the above two

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statements we can conclude that war in fact has not become obsolete; the calculus of war has shifted but the risks have not gone away. Having
discussed the detailed change in the view of war let us now entail the two main security issues and challenges humanity is facing in the 21st
century.

1) Nuclear Proliferation

According to the Arms Control Association, the world’s nine nuclear powers have about 9,600 nuclear warheads in military service among them.
And there are several dozen nations with the capacity to build nuclear weapons. Nuclear proliferation thus remains yet another example of
global institutional failure.The recent withdrawal of the United States from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is just the latest
example of the systemic failure and precariousness of arms control agreements as currently constituted. Graham Allison in his Destined for
War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? quotes the Greek historian’s explanation that “it was the rise of Athens and the fear
that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable” and notes that “when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power, the resulting
structural stress makes a violent clash the rule, not the exception.” In 12 of the 16 cases over the past five hundred years when a major rising
power threatened to displace a ruling power the result was war; a sobering. observation against the background of an escalating trade war
between China and the US at the time of writing.the grave danger the world still faces with the current approach to nuclear weapons and
nuclear “security,” have been underlined by the recent prominent warnings, issuing from members of the US foreign policy establishment,
among others. These risks are aggravated by the poor quality of political leadership in so many countries today, with narcissistic personalities
and authoritarian instincts, and all the signs of leaders corrupted by power, disregarding reasoned advice and expert opinion, and often isolated
from the realities around them.It would be all too easy in such circumstances to stumble unwittingly into a war that could then not be
controlled.

2) Global Terrorism

Defining Terroism is not an easy task, this is attributed to the complex and emotive nature of the topic of terrorism. It is complex because it
combines so many different aspects of human experience and it is emotive because Without a doubt, terrorism evokes strong feelings
whenever it is discussed. A key challenge of understanding terrorism is both acknowledging the moral outrage at terrorist acts, while at the
same time trying to understand the rationale behind terrorism. Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in human experience. Violence has been
used throughout human history by those who chose to oppose states, kings, and princes. This sort of violence can be differentiated from what
is termed as terrorism. Violence in opposition to a government is often targeted against soldiers and those who govern. Terrorism, however, is
characterized by the use of violence against civilians, with the expressed desire of causing terror or panic in the population. Terrorism is not
unique to the 20th and 21st centuries. Terrorism touches all aspects of human experience. It has a tremendous effect to the rights as defined by
all declarations, covenants and conventions. The rights set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulate the right to equality,
freedom from discrimination, the right to life, liberty, and personal security, freedom from slavery, and freedom from torture and degrading
treatment. Terrorism has slammed and affected almost every sphere of human life, be it economic or political or social. Compared with other
traumatic events, such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks tend to distress people who were nowhere near an incident and who knew nobody
caught up in it. That is partly because of the seemingly random nature of attacks It also shows how disturbing the idea of an “enemy within” is.
According to the new Global Terrorism Index, the cost of terrorism to the world is estimated at 52.9 billion dollars (2014) - the highest since
2001. This represent a tenfold increase on the figure in 2000, and a rise of 20 billion dollars on the previous year. Social effects of terrorism can
include injury, death, and psychological trauma.

Environmental Challenges

In the scientific community, the global challenges identified as the major areas of urgent concern have been climate change, biodiversity loss
and pollution. The growing global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, at an annual average rate of 2 percent since 1990, hit record levels
in 2018. This validates their concern isn't futile and reflects on the continued growth of the global economy, and a sharp rise in energy
consumption in China, accompanied by the weakening of natural carbon sinks, such as forests and seas. In evidence of this it wouldn't be
surprising to stumble upon the knowledge that large volumes of Arctic ice have melted and accelerated flow in Greenland glaciers and now in
the Antarctic is contributing to rising sea levels. Even when world economic growth came to a halt in 2009 because of the global financial crisis,
these perturbing trends were not reversed, as the present scale of human activity was only marginally and temporarily affected, and world
economic growth again took off shortly thereafter. In the absence of other measures aimed directly at reducing emissions, only a sustained,
deep economic depression such as that witnessed during the 1929-1933 period, or some other major crisis, might have an impact on the pace
of accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. However, expecting an economic depression to help temporarily mitigate the challenges
of global warming is hardly a commendable solution, involving severe social costs. The transition from labour production to machine production
in what is known as the industrial revolution characterized by economic growth and technological innovation have led to a massive increase in
global wealth, it has resulted in serious degradation of the planet’s natural resources, now accelerated by climate change, and is leading to
emerging supply constraints. Human impacts on the planet now exceed many natural processes, to the point that the modern era is
increasingly being labeled as the Anthropocene. Homo sapiens has become an invasive species, degrading the environment and pushing
beyond planetary boundaries. Science is beginning to determine the survivability of human civilization at the planetary level. The more we

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degrade planetary carrying capacity now, the lower will be the standard of living in a sustainable world society, at least in the short term. These
environmental challenges are at the interface of science and policymaking. Policy in this area is currently done via ad hoc approaches involving
elements of international cooperation, voluntary compliance, and large doses of hope. In the absence of a body having jurisdiction over the
global environment with corresponding legal enforcement authority, the international community has, de facto, abdicated management of the
world’s environment to chance and the actions of a few well-meaning states. Even the 2015 Paris Agreement ratified by 185 countries pledging
reductions in emissions, if implemented in full, will not prevent a warming in excess of 1.5C, the threshold recognized by climate scientists as
necessary to avoid “potentially devastating consequences.”

Economic Challenges

In our globalized world, powerful demonstration effects are at work as everyone can now see how the wealthy live. The spread of instant communication
and the Internet have led billions of people in China, India, Latin America, and other parts of the developing world to aspire to lifestyles and patterns of
consumption similar to those prevailing in the advanced economies. Furthermore, these populations are often unwilling to postpone such aspirations
and increasingly expect their governments to deliver rising levels of prosperity, implicitly pushing for a more equitable distribution of the world’s
resources. Yet from 1988-2008 over 60% of the gains in global income were concentrated in the top 5% of the global income distribution. Thus, a
fundamental development question that we face today is how to reconcile the legitimate aspirations of citizens in the developing world for the high
economic growth rates that in the post-war period led to such remarkable improvements in global standards of living, with the challenges of a planet and
an economic system under severe stress as a result of the pressures put on it by that very economic growth. The only way to make resources available
for the half of the world population struggling to make ends meet will be for those in wealthy countries to reduce their own resource consumption and
adopt simpler, more sustainable lifestyles supported by a circular economy to eliminate waste. Justice and sustainability both require that we re-think
the consumer society on which the present economy is largely built, and that we sensibly address some of the short-term dislocations that this might
entail, while ensuring development to meet the basic needs and ensure the security of the poor. Driving this transition and minimizing its negative effects
will have to be a government responsibility, since there is bound to be significant inertia within the private sector. Another challenge is the growing risk
of a global financial collapse when the present debt bubble bursts. The global economy has no lender of last resort. There is no reliable, depoliticized
mechanism to deal with financial crises. Whether a country receives or is refused an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in the middle of a
financial meltdown is a function not of a transparent set of internationally agreed rules, but rather of several other factors, including whether the IMF’s
largest shareholders consider the country to be a strategic ally worth supporting. There is also no effective international legal framework to ensure that
global business enterprises are socially, environmentally and economically responsible.

Social Challenges

Unfortunately, security, enviromental and economic challenges are not by any means the only sources of risk to humankind’s global outlook. While the
above mentioned challenges represent the outer boundaries to a sustainable planetary society, there are also a number of inner social boundaries below
which no just and equitable society with adequate wealth and resources should descend, with poverty as the most central issue. Growing inequality and
the consequent social instability are the result of the failure of the present economic system to distribute its increasing wealth more equitably. It seems
the world, more specifically those who rule it, don't care about the distractions and the costs economic growth brings regarding social and enviromental
aspects. Alongside this ignorance to the degree of world populations existence there are other factors other forces at work that are already having a
major impact on our system’s institutional underpinnings which have been crucial to the progress achieved during the past half-century. The significant
ones among these are population growth and the corresponding pressures on resources. According to the World Energy Outlook published by the
International Energy Agency, global energy demand is expected to grow by more than 25 percent by 2040,19 reflecting the addition of some 1.7 billion
people to the world’s population and the corresponding need for housing, transportation, heating, illumination, food production, waste disposal, and the
push for sustained increases in standards of living. Because many of the mothers who will bear these close to 2 billion children are already alive today,
this expected increase in the world’s population- barring some unexpected calamity- will materialize and will be largely concentrated in urban
environments in developing countries. Beyond the inevitable pressures on resources, rapid population growth in the poorest parts of the world in the
next several decades will lead to growing imbalances. These countries already suffer from the highest rates of unemployment in the world. To simply
prevent these rates from rising further, it will be necessary to create well over 100 million new jobs within the next decade and a half an extremely tall
order. The job creation needs of these countries are nothing new and were present already at the outset of this century; the failure to do so has led to
major political and social instability in the region in recent years. These challenges have made existence for the global community, especially the poorest
parts of the world, intolerable. This must be the case for the reason why they flee from their nation and elope to the relatively developed cities and
towns of the urban area. The problem with this act is that the urban area can only accommodate a certain amount of population due to its limited size.
What happens to the one who isn't "fit" to fight for a place is something no state wishes for her citizens. Obviously, much must be done at the level of
public education, trust in institutions, just and equitable distribution of resources, and infrastructure development before such adjustments can become
reasonable possibilities, but improvements to international governance can lay the foundation for the gradual elimination of this inconsistency and
associated imbalances.

Severity of Global Challenges

We will start discussing the severity of Global Challenges by discussing how rampant it is over diffrent countries and parts of the world. Let us first look at
how terriosm affects diffrent parts of the globe. According to the 2015 Global Terrorism Index terrorism continues to rise. The total number of deaths
from terrorism in 2014 reached 32,685, constituting an 80 per cent increase from 18,111 the previous year. This is the highest level ever recorded. The
significant majority of these deaths, over 78 per cent, occurred in in the Middle east,Africa or South Asia. The rise of terrorism is not the only global

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challenge. It is accompanied by extent of terrorist attacks. This is highlighted by the 2014 Global Terrorism Index where attacks awere recorded in 93
countries, up from 88 in 2013. This continues the trend from 2011 with more countries experiencing terrorist attacks and deaths each year. The role
played by the mass media in spreading unchecked and unauthorized information to the public could be mentioned as the lead cause. They do this by
enhancing the agenda setting, increasing lethality and expanding the transnational character of the lack of political legitimacy and continuing as well as
lack of integration for the political fringes. Other "not-so-big" factors are the hegemony in the international system by one or two actors and the focus of
nations to control power.

Source: 2015 GLOBAL TERRORISM INDEX REPORT

After establishing how terrorism affects our world let us now move on to how poverty affect our world. The most cited definition of poverty is " A state of
being in which a person lacks the income (or other means of support) to reliably meet their basic personal needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing ".
Like most challenges, poverty is a problem of every country but it is magnified and is a most pressing issue in some countries than others. While overall
poverty rates have improved considerably in recent decades. The Poverty Rate by Country of World Bank outlines several individual countries have
experienced a rise in poverty. According to this report 696 million people still live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.90 (INT) per day. More
than 430 million of these people live in Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region in the world, where more than 40% of people lived in extreme poverty as
of 2018. Numerous countries in which poverty is rising have been affecyrd by political instability or conflict. Others are plagued by frequent natural
disasters or ongoing environmental stresses (increased drought in particular) caused by climate change. Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa face both
of these concerns. The figure below sums up the findings of the report.

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SOURCE: Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (World Bank)

The data below shows that The United States is by far the largest importer of small arms while the main exporters are the United States, followed by Italy
and Germany and then South Korea. Only the European states show transparency in their exports. At the opposite extreme, the Gulf countries but also
Israel and North Korea prove to be very opaque about the destinations of their exports. In light to this we can could conclude that USA is the country
where the most rampant weapon prolification exists.

Source: Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT), Database of Small Arms Transfers, 1962-2016

The Role of Global Citizens In Offsetting Global Challenges

The study shows that much of the challenges we face today are beyond the control of a single state or even a single organization. Cooperation is key if
we desire to implement the policies and the regulations put to make our world a better place for human existence. The role the global citizen play at this
level is to induce the cooperation of states. Although this seems insignificant it is vital to motivate and even to force those in leadership position to deal
with the challenges across the globe. The practical aspect of implementing these policies depend on the government. A central element of a strategy
aimed at generating a sustainable development path in the context of a peaceful world will have to be a significant new capacity to enforce international
law, and the reform of legal institutions and current mechanisms of international cooperation, which have turned out to be largely inadequate to manage
the global challenges that we face. While there has been considerable progress within the limitations of the present system, its fundamental failings have
become increasingly evident. Whether we focus our attention on climate change and the broad range of associated environmental calamities, nuclear
proliferation, the workings of the world’s financial system, or growing income disparities, the fact is that major planetary problems are being neglected
because we do not have effective problem-solving mechanisms and institutions strong enough to deal with them. Or, put differently, a range of
inherently global crises cannot be solved outside the framework of global collective action involving supranational cooperation and a fundamental
rethinking of the meaning of “national interest.”

Global Inequality and Poverty

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The relationship between the two is more complex and this complexity is on the rise. Nevertheless, there exists a clear systemic connection between the
global Inequality and global poverty. The creator and perpetuator of poverty is Inequality. Inequality makes economic progression for individuals in under
developed countries impossible. In developing countries however the effects of inequality are not seen as a direct problem but rather a problem which
takes it's course of time waiting for the right moment to attack. This is because inequality isn't seen as a major problem mainly because the growing
economy creates many opportunities for mobility in the economic ladder. So as long as the basic needs of the individual within a state are met and the
standard of living is improving for these individuals concerns about inequality tend to be slim. This creates a slowly widdening gap between the rich and
the poor. This is what happened during the last two decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the this century.

While economic disparities remained a serious problem in developing countries, the forces of globalization created conditions that helped widen the gap
between rich and poor in industrialized societies. When the economy deteriorates, the gap between rich and poor tends to be narrower but concerns
about in equality are heightened. During the global economic recession, the wealthy lost money, but the poor lost their jobs, houses, and health
insurance.

For example, when one country is able to access resources or knowledge that another country lacks, the former can grow while the latter remains at a
standstill. This disparity in resources can contribute to the creation and widening of the inequality gap. It is clear that global poverty and global inequality
are intertwined and interrelated. We see this manifested in many ways, from the extreme wealth discrepancies between nations to the glaring lack of
basic necessities for those in low-income countries. The impact of this relationship is vast and complex, with implications for both economic security and
human rights. This is why it is important to explore the systemic relationship between global poverty and global inequality, in order to better understand
the root causesof poverty and its effects on society.

As the world continues to grapple with issues of global inequality and poverty, it has become increasingly clear that these two issues are closely
intertwined. Poverty is, after all, a product of inequality and its effects manifest in societies in a variety of ways. From disparities in access to education,
employment, and healthcare, to the presence of extreme wealth within certain sections ofpopulations, these are all signs of the far-reaching
consequences of inequality. In the face of this challenge, international development organizations have begun to take steps to address both inequality
and poverty through targeted interventions. It is clear that global poverty is an issue that affects many people around the world. Althoughit is difficult to
accurately measure, there is a clear relationship between global inequality and global poverty. In general, countries with higher levels of inequality tend
to experience higher levels of poverty. This highlightsthe importance of reducing inequality in order to reduce poverty and create a more egalitarian
world.

Reference
• Arms Control Association. 2018. Nuclear Weapons: Who Has What at a Glance. June 2018.

www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat

• Schell, Jonathan. 1982. The Fate of the Earth, London, Jonathan Cape, p. 185.

• IPCC. 2018. Global Warming of 1.5C (SR15), Special Report. Summary for Policy Makers.

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Geneva, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, October 2018. www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

UN Environment. 2018. Emissions Gap Report 2018. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.
www.unenvironment.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2018.

• Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT), Database of Small Arms Transfers, 1962-2016, http://nisat.prio.org;
Small Arms Survey, Trade Update 2017, www.smallarmssurvey.org

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