Notes in Contemporary World

Globalization
Relevance of this course
 Primarily an economic process.
1. Studying the outside world is a cure to
5 Characteristics of Globalization
parochialism or an outlook that is limited to one’s
immediate community.
1. The expansion and intensification of social
2. It is important to study the world because it can relations and consciousness across world-
teach you more about yourself. time and across world-space. – Manfred
Steger
3. You need to study the world because you will be 2. Globalization involves the creation of new
interacting with it. social networks and the multiplication of
existing connections.
3. Expansion, stretching and acceleration of
Lesson 1: What is Globalization? these networks.
4. Intensification and acceleration of social
The story of Gio, Latif and the Laksa exchanges and activities
5. Globalization processes do not occur merely
 Gio- a second year international affairs
at an objective, material level but also
student in a university in Cebu City.
involve the subjective plane of human
 Latif- from a Muslim University in Kuala
consciousness.
Lumpur.
 International Model UN competition in Globalism
Sydney Australia- competition about
international politics.  Is a widespread belief among powerful
 Hawker centers- food park people that the global integration of
 Best malaysian cuisine- nasi lemak and economic markets is beneficial for
laksa everyone.
 Laksa- a rice noodle soup in a spicy
coconut curry sauce. Globality
 Flat whites- an espresso drink similar to latte.
 Still connected to other through facebook  Is a social condition characterized by
and instagram. globalization, political, cultural,
 Gio moved to Singapore as an OFW. environmental interconnectedness,
 Orchard Road- singapore’s main borderless irrelevant.
commercial road.  Manifestation- value of individualism and
competition
Two Premises  existence of
economic system of
1. Globalization is a complex phenomenon private property.
that occurs at multiple levels.  Communal & cooperative- social
relations which is less capitalistic.

Hyperglobalists

2. It is an uneven process that affects people  Pro-globalist

differently.

Nationalist and Activist
 Anti-globalist
Kinds of globalization according to Arjun
Apparudai
1. Ethnoscape- global movement of people
2. Mediascape- flow of culture
3. Technoscape- circulation of mechanical
goods and software
4. Financescape- global circulation of money
5. Ideoscape- political ideas move around
Lesson 2: The globalization of world
economic
Economic globalization
 The International Monetary Fund (IMF)
defines it as a historical process
representing the result of human
innovation and technological progress.
 According to the IMF, the value of trade
(goods and services) as a percentage
of world GDP increased from 42.1
percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007.
 Increased trade means that investments
are moving all over the world at faster
speeds.
 According to the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), the amount of foreign direct
investments flowing across the world was
US$ 57 billion in 1982. By 2015, that
number was $1.76 trillion.
International Trading Systems
 Silk road
 oldest known international
trade route
 a network of pathways that
spanned China to Middle
East and
Europe.
 traders used the Silk Road
regularly from 130 BCE when
the Chinese
 Han Dynasty opened trade
to the West until 1453 BCE
when the
Ottoman Empire closed it.
 the Silk Road was
international, it was not truly
“global” because it
had no ocean routes.
 According to historians Dennis O. Flynn
and Arturo Giraldez, “the age of
globalization began when “all important
populated continents began to
exchange products continuously both
with each other directly and indirectly
via other continents and in value
sufficient to generate crucial impacts on
all trading partners”
 1571- establishment of the galleon trade
that connected Manila in the Philippines
and Acapulco in Mexico.
 Mercantilism era
 countries primarily in Europe,
competed with one another
to sell more goods as a
means to boost their
country’s income (called
monetary reserves).
 to defend their products from
competitors who sold goods
more cheaply,imposed high
tariffs, forbade colonies to
trade with other nations.
 also a system of global trade
with multiple restrictions.
 Gold Standard
 a more open trade system
that emerged in 1867.
 its goal was to create a
common system that would
allow for more efficient trade.
 established a common basis
for currency prices and a
fixed exchange rate system
– all based on the value of
gold.
  during World War I, when
countries depleted their gold
reserves to fund their armies,
many were forced to
abandon the gold standard.
 Great depression- caused by
the gold standard and was
the worst and longest
recession ever experienced
by the Western world.
 Economic historian Barry
Eichengreen argues that the
recovery of the US really
began when having
abandoned the gold
standard.
 At the height of World War II,
other major industrialized
countries followed suit.
 Fiat currencies- currencies
whose value is determined
Neoliberalism and Its Discontents
by their cost relative to other
currencies.
The Bretton Woods System
 After the two world wars, world leaders
sought to create a global economic
system that would ensure a longer-
lasting global peace.
 The Bretton woods sytem was
inaugurated in 1944 to prevent the
catastrophes of the early decades of
the century from reoccurring and
affecting international ties.
 It was largely influenced by the ideas of
British economist John Maynard Keynes
who believed that economic crises
occur not when a country does not
have enough money, but when money
is not being spent and not moving.
 Global Keynesianism- a system of the
active role of governments in managing
spending served as the anchor.
 Two financial institutions
 International Bank for
Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD or
world bank) – too be
responsible for funding
postwar reconstruction
projects.
 International Monetary
Fund (IMF)- which was to
be the global lender of last
resort to prevent
individual countries from
spiraling into credit crises.
 After Bretton Woods, various countries
also committed themselves to further
global economic integration through
the General Agreement on Tarrifs and
Trade (GATT) in 1947. Its main purpose
was to reduce tariffs and other
hindrances to free trade.
 The high point of global Keynesianism
came in the mid-1940s to the early
1970s. Governments poured money into
their economies, allowing people to
purchase more goods and increase
demand for these products. As demand
increased, so did the prices of these
goods.
 The theory went that, as prices
increased, companies would earn more,
and would have more money to hire
workers.
 Keynesian Economists believed that all
this was a necessary trade-off for
economic development.
 In early 1970s, the prices of oil rose
sharply as a result of the Organization of
Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OAPEC) imposition of an embargo in
reponse of the decision of US and other
countries to resupply the Israeli military.
 Oil Embargo- affected the Western Lesson 3: A History of Global Politics:
economies that were reliant on oil. Creating an International Order
 The stock markets crashed in 1973-1974
International Relations
after US stopped linking the
 dollar to gold, effectively ending the
-scholars of politics study this, it is about political,
Bretton Woods system.
military, and other diplomatic engagements
 Stagflation- a phenomenon in which a
between two or more countries.
decline in economic growth and
employment (stagnation) takes place Internationalization
alongside a sharp increase in prices
(inflation). -a phenomenon
 Economists such as Friedrich Hayek and
Milton Friedmen argued that -deepening of interactions between states
government intervention in economies
distort the proper functioning of the - does not equal globalization, but a major part of
market. globalization.
 Neoliberalism- a new form of economic
United Nations
thinking and became the codified
strategy of US treasury department,
-most prominent example of this organization
world bank and IMF.
 World Trade Organization (WTO)- a new -meeting ground of presidents
organization founded in 1995 to
continue the tariff reduction under the Globalization
GATT.
 Washington Consensus- dominated -encompasses a multitude of connections and
global economic policies, it advocates interactions that cannot be reduced to the ties
pushed for minimal government between governments.
spending to reduce government debt.
The Attributes of Today’s Global System
 US Pres. Ronald Reagan and British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher justified their Four key attributes of world politics
reduction in government spending by
comparing national economies to 1. There are countries or states that are
households. independent and govern themselves.
 Thatcher, promoted an image of her 2. These countries interact with each other
mother. Who reined in overspending to through diplomacy.
reduce the national debt. 3. There are international organizations, like the
 The problem with this analogy is that United Nations (UN), that facilitate these
governments are not households. interactions.
 Post-communist Russia- the IMF assumed 4. Beyond simply facilitating meetings
that such a move would free industries between states, international organizations
from corrupt bureaucrats. also take on loves of their own.
 This practice has entrenched an
oligarchy that still dominates the Russian
economy to this very day.
Nation-State Forms of government

-is a relatively modern phenomenon in human 1. Monorchial

history, and people did not always organize 2. Republican
themselves as countries. 3. Dictatorial
4. Democratic
The two interchangeable terms of nation – 5. Presidential
state
4. Sovereignty

“Not all states are nations and not all nations are
-one of the fundamental principles of
states”
modern state politics.
Examples
Internal Sovereignty
1. The nation of Scotland has its own flag and
national culture but still belongs to a state -no one can operate in a given national
called United Kingdom.
territory by ignoring the state.
2. Many believe that Bangsomoro is a
separate nation withing Philippines but the External Sovereignty
authority still recognizes it as a Philippine
State. -a state’s policies and procedures are

State independent of the interventions of

other states.
-refers to a country and its government.
Nation
Four attributes of State

- “imagined community”
1. Citizen
- It is limited because it does not go beyond a
Bases in determining principles given “official boundary”
 Jus Sanguinis
 Jus Soli The Interstate System
 Naturalization
-the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, Sweden,
Smallest State- Singapore & Vatican and the Dutch Republic designed a system that
would avert wars in the future.
Largest State-China & Russia
Treaty of Westphalia
2. Territory
3. Government -a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty
Years War between the major continental powers
-agency in which the will of the people are of Europe.
established, limited &defined.
Napoleon Bonaparte
3 structures of government
-believed in spreading the principles of the French
1. Executive Revolution (liberty, equality and fraternity)
2. Judiciary
3. Legistative
 - an advocate of the unification of the
Napolenic Wars
various Italian-speaking mini-states and a
major critic of the Metternich system.
-1803-1815
- Believed in Republican Government
Napoleonic Code
Woodrow Wilson
-forbade birth privileges, encouraged freedom or
- Influenced by Mazzini
religion and promoted meritocracy in government
- US president
service.
- 20th century’s most prominent internationalist
Concert of Europe - he forwarded the principle of self-
determination (the belief that the world’s
-alliance of “great powers” nations had a right to a free and sovereign
government.
-sought to restore the world of monarchical, - Became the most notable advocate for the
hereditary and religious privileges of the time before creation of the League of Nations.
the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
Karl Marx
Internationalism
- Also an internationalist but who differed
-one window into the broader phenomenon of from the former because he did not believe
globalization. in nationalism.
- He did not divide the world into countries,
Two categories
but into classes.
Capitalist Class
1. Liberal
-owners
2. Socialist
Proletariat Class
-workers
Immanuel Kant
Friedrich Engels
- first major thinker of liberal internationalism

- “establish a continuously growing state consisting - Co-author of Marx

of various nations which will ultimately include the
nations of the world.
- he imagine a form of global government.
Jeremy Bentham
- coined the word “international”
- he believed that objective global legistators
should aim to propose legistation that would
create “the greatest happiness of all nations
taken together”.
Giuseppe Mazzini
- Believed that in a socialist revoltution
seeking to overthrow the state and alter the
economy.
The Socialist International
- Was a union of European socialist and labor
parties established on Paris in 1889.
The Communist International
- Served as the central body for directing
Communist parties all over the world.

- first thinker to reconcile nationalism with

liberal nationalism
 Lesson 4: The United Nations and
Contemporary Global Governance
Regularities in the general behaviour of states
1. They more or less follow global navigation
routes and, more often than not, respect
each other’s territorial boundaries.
2. To adhere to certain global norms means
that there is a semblance of world order.
Global Governance
-refers to the various intersecting processes that
create this order.
Sources of global governance
1. States signs treaties and form organizations,
in the process legistating public international
law.
2. Powerful transnational corporations can
likewise have tremendous effects on global
labor laws, environmental legistation and
trade policy.
International Organization
 refer to international intergovernmental
organizations or groups that are primarily
made up of member-states.
 One major fallacy about international
organizations is that they are merely
amalgations of various state interest.
IOs Power of Classification
1. They create powerful global standards.
2. IOs have the power to fix meanings.
3. IOs have the power to diffuse norms.
United Nations
-most prominent intergovernmental organization
today.
Five Active Organs of UN
1. General Assembly
 Main deliberative policymaking and
representative organ
 Annually, the General Assembly elect a
GA President to serve one-year term of
office.
 193 members
 Filipino Diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was
elected GA president.
2. Security Council
 Most powerful
 15 members
 Two year term of office
 Permanent 5(P5) – China, France, Russia,
UK and US
 The SC takes the lead in determining the
existence of threat to the peace or an
act or aggression.
3. Economic and Social Council
 the 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,
 54 members
 Three years term of office
4. International Court of Justice
 to settle, in accordance with
international law, legal disputes
submitted to it by authorized United
Nations organs and specialized
agencies.
5. Secretariat
 Secretary-General and tens of
thousands of international UN staff
members who carry out the day-to day
work of the UN as mandated by the GA.
  It is the bureaucracy of the UN
 Members of the secretariat serve in their
capacity as UN employees and not a
state representatives.

Challenges of the United Nations

 Chief among these are the limits placed

upon its various organs and programs by the
need to respect state sovereignty.
 The biggest challenge of UN is related to the
issues of security.
WORLD OF REGIONS
 Warsaw Pact- Soviet Union’s regional
Regionalization Alliance, consisting of
Eastern European
 Societal integration and often indirected countries.
process of social and economic integration.
 End result of regionalism 2. To pool their resources
 Organization of the Petroleum
Regionalism Exporting Countries (OPEC)- was
established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq,
 Emergent, socially constituted Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela
phenomenon. to regulate the production and sale
 Set of conscious activities of oil. Other members of OPEC
include Quatar, UAE, Algeria and
Facets of regionalism
Congo.

- identities, ethics, religion, ecological sustainability

3. To protect their independence from the
and health
pressures of superpower politics.
Regions  Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)-
created by the presidents of Egypt,
 are a group of countries located in the Ghana, India, Indonesia and
same geographically specified area. Yugoslavia in 1961.
 China –offers its cheap and huge workforce -to pursue world peace and
to attract foreign businesses. equality.
 Singapore and Switzerland- compensate for -had 120 member countries.
their lack of resources by turning themselves
into financial and banking hubs. 4. Economic crisis compels countries to come
together
Countries form regional associations for  The Thai economy collapsed in 1996,
several reasons: a rapid withdrawal of foreign
investments bankrupted the
1. For military defense economy. This crisis began to spread
 North Atlantic Treaty Organization to other Asian Countries.
(NATO)- most widely known defense  ASEAN (Association of South East
grouping Asian Nation) along with China,
-formed during the cold war Japan and South Korea agreed to
when several Western establish an emergency fund to
European countries plus the anticipate a crisis that the Asian
United States agreed to economies stabilized.
protect Europe against the
threat of the Soviet Union
Non-state Regionalism 5 periods of the evolution of media and
globalization
 tiny associations that focuses on a single
issue. 1. Oral Communication
 People who share the same values, norms,
 Language- avenue of people who
institutions and system that exist outside of
cooperate
the traditional
-allowed for the sharing of
North American Free Trade Agreement information.
-important tool as human
(NAFTA)
being explored the world
experience different cultures.
Rainforest Foundation
2. Script
 protects indigenous people and the  Papyrus
rainforest.  it allowed humans to communicate
over longer space & much longer
Contemporary Challenges to Regionalism time
 allowed for the written and
1. Resurgence of militant nationalism and permanent codification of
populism. economic, cultural & political
 Brexit- withdrawal of UK to European practices.
Union
2. The extent to which member countries 3. Printing Press
should sacrifice their sovereignty for the sake
 information revolution
of regional stability.
 transferred social institutions
3. Differing visions of what regionalism should
 according to Elizabeth Einstein (1979)
be for.
the influences of printing press
Media and Globalization  It changed the nature of
knowlwdge
Globalization  Preserved & standardized
knowledge
 set of multiple, uneven & overlapping  Encouraged the challenge of
historical processes including eco, politics & political & religious authority
culture, that have combined with the
evolution of media, technology to create 4. Electronic Media
the conditions under which the globe itself  Radio- global medium in reaching
can now be understood as “an imagined regions
community” (global village)  TV- most persuasive & powerful mass
 relies on media as its main conduit for medium
spread of global culture and ideas.  Combi- visual & aural power

5. Digital Media
 rely on digital code
Media
 a means of conveying something, such as
channel of communication
 plural of medium
Technologies of mass communication
1. Print Media
 Books, magazines and newspapers
2. Broadcast Media
 Radio, film and television
3. Digital Media
 Internet and mobile mass
communication
Marshall McLuhan
 the medium is the message.
 he used his analysis of technology to
examine the impact of electronic media.
 he declared that the television was turning
the world into a “global village”
Television
 shapes the social behaviour of users and
reorient family behaviour
Papyrus
 started in Egypt.
Cellphones
 expand people’s senses
The Global Village and Cultural Imperialism
Cultural Imperialism
 media globalization coupled with American
hegemony would create a form of this.
 american values and culture would
overwhelm all others
Herbert Schiller
 argued that not only was the world being
Americanized, but that this process also led
to the spread of “American” capitalist
values like consumerism
John Tomlinson
 cultural globalization is simply a euphemism
for “western cultural imperialism” since it
promotes “homogenized, westernized,
consumer culture”
Critiques of Cultural Imperialism
Ien Ang
 studied the ways in which different viewers
in the Netherlands experienced watching
the American soap opera “Dallas”
Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes
 they decided to push Ang’s analysis.
 they argued that texts are received
differently by varied interpretative
communites.
 Russians were suspicious of the show’s
content
 Americans believed that it was primarily
about the lives of the rich.
Japanese Brands
 Hello Kitty, Mario Brothers and Pokemon
Sushi
 globalized Asian Cuisine
Jollibee
 number one choice for fast food in Brunei
Social Media and the creation of Cyber
Ghettoes  She initially identified three global cities:
New York, London, and Tokyo all of which
Women’s march are hubs of global finance and capitalism.

 against Donald Trump began with a tweet Multiple attributes of global city
from a Hawaii lawyer and became a global
movement. 1. Economic power
2. To measure the economic competitiveness
Splinternet of a city
 The Economist Intelligence Unit
 various bubbles people place themselves in criteria
when they are online 1. Market size
2. Purchasing power of citizens
Cyberbalkanization 3. Size of the middle class
4. Potential for growth
 the phenomenon 3. Global cities are also centers of authority
4. The cities that house major international
Vladimir Putin
organizations may also be considered
centers of political influence
 a Russian dictator who hired armies of
5. Global Cities are center of higher learning
social media to manipulate public opinion
and culture
through intimidation and the spreading of
fake news The challenges of global cities

Trolls 1. Cities can be sustainable because of their

density
 paid users who harass political opponents 2. The major terror attacks of recent years
have also targeted cities.
Global online propaganda

 will be the biggest threat to face as the

globalization of media deepens

Global City

Globalization is spatial because:

1. It occurs in physical spaces

2. What makes it move is the fact that it is
based in places

Saskia Sassen

 Her criteria for what constitutes a global city

were primarily economic.