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.
  traders used the
Silk Road
Nationalist and Activist
regularly from
130 BCE when
the Chinese
 Anti-globalist
 Han Dynasty
opened trade
Kinds of globalization according to Arjun to the West
until 1453 BCE
when the
Apparudai
Ottoman Empire
closed it.
 the Silk
Road was
1. Ethnoscape- global movement of people
international,
it was not truly
2. Mediascape- flow of culture
“global”
because it
3. Technoscape- circulation of mechanical
had no ocean
routes.
goods and software
 According to historians
Dennis O. Flynn
4. Financescape- global circulation of money
and Arturo Giraldez, “the
age of
5. Ideoscape- political ideas move around
globalization began when
“all important
populated
continents began to
Lesson 2: The globalization of world exchange products
continuously both
economic with each other directly
and indirectly
via other continents and in
value
Economic globalization sufficient to generate
crucial impacts on
all trading partners”
 The International Monetary Fund (IMF)  1571- establishment of the
galleon trade
defines it as a historical process that connected Manila in
the Philippines
representing the result of human and Acapulco in Mexico.
innovation and technological progress.  Mercantilism era
 According to the IMF, the value of trade  countries
primarily in Europe,
(goods and services) as a percentage competed with
one another
of world GDP increased from 42.1 to sell more
goods as a
percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007. means
to boost their
 Increased trade means that investments country’s
income (called
are moving all over the world at faster monetary
reserves).
speeds.  to defend their
products from
 According to the United Nations competitors
who sold goods
Conference on Trade and Development more
cheaply,imposed high
(UNCTAD), the amount of foreign direct tariffs,
forbade colonies to
investments flowing across the world was trade with
other nations.
US$ 57 billion in 1982. By 2015, that  also a system of
global trade
number was $1.76 trillion. with multiple
restrictions.
 Gold Standard
International Trading Systems
 a more open
trade system
that emerged
in 1867.
 Silk road
 its goal was to
create a
 oldest known international
common system
that would
trade route
allow for more
efficient trade.
 a network of pathways that
 established a
common basis
spanned China to Middle
for currency
prices and a
East and
fixed
exchange rate system
Europe.
– all based
on the value of
gold.
  during World War I, when  Global Keynesianism- a
system of the
countries depleted their gold active role of
governments in managing
reserves to fund their armies, spending served as the
anchor.
many were forced to  Two financial
institutions
abandon the gold standard. 
International Bank for
 Great depression- caused by
Reconstruction and
the gold standard and was
Development (IBRD or
the worst and longest world
bank) – too be
recession ever experienced
responsible for funding
by the Western world. postwar
reconstruction
 Economic historian Barry
projects.
Eichengreen argues that the 
International Monetary
recovery of the US really Fund
(IMF)- which was to
began when having be the
global lender of last
abandoned the gold resort
to prevent
standard.
individual countries from

spiraling into credit crises.

 After Bretton Woods,
various countries
also committed
themselves to further
global economic
integration through
 At the height of World War II, the General Agreement
on Tarrifs and
other major industrialized Trade (GATT) in 1947.
Its main purpose
countries followed suit. was to reduce tariffs
and other
 Fiat currencies- currencies hindrances to free
trade.
whose value is determined
Neoliberalism and Its
Discontents
by their cost relative to other
currencies.
 The high point of
global Keynesianism
The Bretton Woods System came in the mid-1940s
to the early
1970s. Governments
poured money into
  After the two world wars, world leaders their economies,
allowing people to
sought to create a global economic purchase more goods
and increase
system that would ensure a longer- demand for these
products. As demand
lasting global peace. increased, so did the
prices of these
 The Bretton woods sytem was goods.
inaugurated in 1944 to prevent the  The theory went that,
as prices
catastrophes of the early decades of increased, companies
would earn more,
the century from reoccurring and and would have more
money to hire
affecting international ties. workers.
 It was largely influenced by the ideas of  Keynesian Economists
believed that all
British economist John Maynard Keynes this was a necessary
trade-off for
who believed that economic crises economic development.
occur not when a country does not  In early 1970s, the
prices of oil rose
have enough money, but when money sharply as a result of
the Organization of
is not being spent and not moving. 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 - Believed that in a
socialist revoltution
nations of the world. seeking to
overthrow the state and alter the
economy.
- he imagine a form of global government.
The Socialist
International
Jeremy Bentham
- Was a union of
European socialist and labor
- coined the word “international” parties established
on Paris in 1889.
- he believed that objective global legistators
should aim to propose legistation that would The Communist
International
create “the greatest happiness of all nations
taken together”. - Served as the
central body for directing
Communist parties
all over the world.
Giuseppe Mazzini

- first thinker to reconcile nationalism with

liberal nationalism
 Lesson 4: The United Nations and Five Active Organs of UN
Contemporary Global Governance
1. General Assembly
Regularities in the general behaviour of states  Main deliberative
policymaking and
representative
organ
1. They more or less follow global navigation  Annually, the
General Assembly elect a
routes and, more often than not, respect GA President to
serve one-year term of
each other’s territorial boundaries. office.
2. To adhere to certain global norms means  193 members
that there is a semblance of world order.  Filipino Diplomat
Carlos P. Romulo was
elected GA
president.
Global Governance

2. Security Council
-refers to the various intersecting processes that
create this order.  Most powerful
 15 members
Sources of global governance  Two year term of
office
 Permanent 5(P5) –
China, France, Russia,
1. States signs treaties and form organizations, UK and US
in the process legistating public international  The SC takes the
lead in determining the
law. existence of threat
to the peace or an
2. Powerful transnational corporations can act or aggression.
likewise have tremendous effects on global
labor laws, environmental legistation and 3. Economic and Social
Council
trade policy.  the principal body
for coordination,
policy review,
policy dialogue, and
International Organization
recommendations on
social and
environmental
issues, as well as the
 refer to international intergovernmental
implementation of
internationally
organizations or groups that are primarily
agreed development
goals,
made up of member-states.
 54 members
 One major fallacy about international
 Three years term of
office
organizations is that they are merely
amalgations of various state interest.
4. International Court
of Justice
IOs Power of Classification  to settle, in
accordance with
international law,
legal disputes
1. They create powerful global standards. submitted to it by
authorized United
2. IOs have the power to fix meanings. Nations organs and
specialized
3. IOs have the power to diffuse norms. agencies.

United Nations
5. Secretariat

-most prominent intergovernmental organization  Secretary-General

and tens of
today. 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 Herbert Schiller

 a means of conveying something, such as  argued that not only was

the world being
channel of communication Americanized, but that this
process also led
 plural of medium to the spread of “American”
capitalist
values like consumerism
Technologies of mass communication
John Tomlinson
1. Print Media
 Books, magazines and newspapers  cultural globalization is
simply a euphemism
2. Broadcast Media for “western cultural
imperialism” since it
 Radio, film and television promotes “homogenized,
westernized,
3. Digital Media consumer culture”
 Internet and mobile mass
communication Critiques of Cultural
Imperialism

Marshall McLuhan Ien Ang

 the medium is the message.  studied the ways in which

different viewers
 he used his analysis of technology to in the Netherlands
experienced watching
examine the impact of electronic media. the American soap opera
“Dallas”
 he declared that the television was turning
the world into a “global village” Elihu Katz and Tamar Liebes

Television  they decided to push Ang’s

analysis.
 they argued that texts are
received
 shapes the social behaviour of users and differently by
varied interpretative
reorient family behaviour communites.
 Russians were suspicious of
the show’s
Papyrus content
 Americans believed that it
was primarily
 started in Egypt. about the lives of the
rich.

Cellphones Japanese Brands

 expand people’s senses  Hello Kitty, Mario Brothers

and Pokemon

The Global Village and Cultural Imperialism Sushi

Cultural Imperialism  globalized Asian Cuisine

 media globalization coupled with American Jollibee

 hegemony would create a form of this.
 american values and culture would  number one choice for fast
food in Brunei
overwhelm all others
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.