GE 5: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: LECTURE NOTES

LESSON 1. INTRODUCTION TO GLOBALIZATION

Globalization represents the global integration of international trade, investment,

information technology and cultures. Government policies designed to open economies
domestically and internationally to boost development in poorer countries and raise
standards of living for their people are what drive globalization
World Health Organization define Globalization, “ the increased
interconnectedness and interdependence of peoples and countries, is generally
understood to include two inter-related elements: the opening of international borders to
increasingly fast flows of goods, services, finance, people and ideas; and the changes
in institutions and policies at national and international levels that facilitate or promote
such flows. Globalization has the potential for both positive and negative effects on
development and health.”
Thomas Friedman defined globalization as, “as the inexorable integration of
markets, transportation systems, and communication systems to a degree never
witnessed before – in a way that is enabling corporations, countries, and individuals to
reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before, and in a
way that is enabling the world to reach into corporations, countries, and individuals
farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before” . Also,
Manfred Steger provided scholarly description in his Globalization: A Very Short
Introduction, “the term globalization should be used to refer to a set of social processes
that are thought to transform our present social condition into one of globality”.
In simple economic concept, the flow of products and services with few barriers in the
integration of market, investment and trade between nation. At some point, culture is
also assimilated and trade as they exchange of ideas and traditions by trading. The
spread of Korean pop culture across will advance the exchange of ideas, art, language
and music like other millennials experiencing nowadays are some of the best example.
Globalization across the boarders makes people and goods to move easily in the
different nations
Globalization is an event occurred in unprecedented pace and gives definition to
the world’s market. It is still a public debate whether it is beneficial or detrimental most
especially to the average citizens. It may direct or indirectly affect everyone, but not
everyone gets the same benefits. The more stretches and intensified, the more
backlashes produce to those people who cannot keep on the same. Standards of living
have risen overall as more third-world countries experience industrialization. Other
proponents believe that globalization is the way to catch up for developing countries .
Because it allows them to cooperate with other nation like never before. The presence

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of multinational company will of great contribution especially to local economies as they

invest in local products, resources, services, medical and educational facilities.

LESSON 2. THE GLOBAL ECONOMY

Countries trade with each other due to the lack of resources and cannot satisfy their
own needs and wants. As the countries developed their resources and they trade it for
the resources they need. Many years ago, when the other countries travelled a distance
to trade, as it is very evident that international trade plays significant role in the
development of industrialized world. Imports of goods and services happen maybe for
better or cheaper quality, appealing goods or no alternatives exist. In this lesson, we will
begin with economic globalization and global actors that facilitate the economic
globalization.
United Nations defines Economic globalization as “increasing interdependence of
world economies as a result of the growing scale of cross-border trade of commodities
and services, flow of international capital and wide and rapid spread of technologies. It
reflects the continuing expansion and mutual integration of market frontiers, and is an
irreversible trend for the economic development in the whole world at the turn of the
millennium. The rapid growing significance of information in all types of productive
activities and marketization are the two major driving forces for economic globalization”

According to Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez ,”Global trade emerged when 1)
all heavily populated continents began to exchange products continuously – both with
each other directly and indirectly via other continents – and 2) did so in values sufficient
to generate lasting impacts on all trading partners” (“Globalization Began in 1571.p2 )

GLOBAL ACTORS

Multinational Corporation
The multinational corporation is a business organization whose activities are
located in more than two countries and is the organizational form that defines foreign
direct investment. This form consists of a country location where the firm is incorporated
and of the establishment of branches or subsidiaries in foreign countries (A.A Lazarus,
2001 p. 10197)

The International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), founded at the Bretton Woods
Conference in 1944, is the official organization for securing international monetary
cooperation. It has done useful work in various fields, such as research and the
publication of statistics and the tendering of monetary advice to less-developed
countries. It has also conducted valuable consultations with the more developed
countries.

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GE 5: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: LECTURE NOTES

North Atlantic Treaty

NATO is based on the North Atlantic Treaty, which provides the organization a
framework. The treaty provides that an armed attack against one or more of NATO`s
member nations shall be considered an attack against them all.* NATO is
headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. The organization was formed in 1949. Many
nations joined NATO — even Iceland, the only member without a military force. The
organization was originally formed out of the fear that the Soviet Union would ally
militarily with Eastern European nations, i.e. the Warsaw Pact, and thus become a
threat to Western Europe and the United States

World Trade Organization (WTO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the
World Bank
The World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
and the World Bank are the three institutions that underwrite the basic rules and
regulations of economic, monetary, and trade relations between countries. Many
developing nations have loosened trade rules under pressure from the IMF and the
World Bank.

The domestic financial markets in these countries have not been developed and
do not have appropriate laws in place to enable domestic financial institutions to stand
up to foreign competition. The administrative setup, judicial systems, and law-enforcing
agencies generally cannot guarantee the social discipline and political stability that are
necessary in order to support a growth-friendly atmosphere.

LESSON 3: MARKET INTEGRATION

Market integration is the fusing of many markets into one. Global market
integration means that price differences between countries are eliminated as all markets
become one. One way to the progress of globalization is to look at trends how prices
converge or become similar across countries. The time when the costs of trading across
the country fall and that is the time the other firm will take advantage of price
differences, other countries may enter the market of the other country. Trading cost fall
when new product invented or developed becomes cheaper and also, some cost are
man-made like when they impose a barriers for trade

Integration 
By the end of the 20th century globalization across most markets had returned to
the levels seen just before World War I. Today, markets are more integrated than ever

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as transportation costs have continued to fall and most tariffs have been scrapped
altogether.

One vision of the future of globalization involves the elimination of other kind’s
barriers to trade caused by institutional differences between countries. Markets are
embedded in institutions such as property rights, legal systems, and regulatory regimes.
Differences in institutions between countries create trading costs in the same way that
tariffs or distance do. For example, there may be different laws in Kenya, China about
what happens when a buyer fails to pay. This might make it hard for a Chinese exporter
to recover what it is owed in the event of a dispute, which could make the firm reluctant
to enter the Kenyan market. Despite the removal of tariffs the world is far from being a
single market. Borders still matter because of these kinds of institutional
incompatibilities. Complete integration requires the ironing out of legal and regulatory
differences to create a single institutional space.

LESSON 4: INTERSTATE SYSTEM

Interstate System
Most studies of war that take the interstate system as the unit of analysis begin
with assumptions from the ‘realist’ paradigm. States are seen as unitary actors, and
their actions are explained in terms of structural characteristics of the system. The most
important feature of the interstate system is that it is anarchic. Unlike politics within
states, relations between states take place in a Hobbesian ‘state of nature.’ Since an
anarchic system is one in which all states constantly face actual or potential threats,
their main goal is security. Security can only be achieved in such a system by
maintaining power. In realist theories, the distribution of power in the interstate system
is the main determinant of the frequency of war.
As to the concept of system, we like to refer to the definition in The Oxford
English Dictionary. It defines ‘system’ to be (1) a set or assemblage of things
connected, associated, or interdependent, so as to form a complex unity, or (2) a whole
composed of parts in orderly arrangement according to some scheme or plan. In studies
of international politics, the conception of ‘system’ has been used mainly in two ways:
international system, and world system(s). The term ‘international system’ is a concept
for analysis or description of international politics.

Used as an analytical term, it is predicated upon a definite notion of system. But

it is not necessarily so when it is used to describe situations of international relations at
a given time. The term ‘international system’ came to be accepted as an academic term
in the late 1950s, soon becoming fashionable, but more or less obsolete in the late
1990s.

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GE 5: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: LECTURE NOTES

LESSON 5: GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

Global governance is understood as “…the way in which global affairs are
managed. As there is no global government, global governance typically involves a
range of actors including states, as well as regional and international organizations.
However, a single organization may nominally be given the lead role on an issue, for
example the World Trade Organization in world trade affairs. Thus global governance is
thought to be an international process of consensus-forming which generates guidelines
and agreements that affect national governments and international corporations.
Examples of such consensus would include WHO policies on health issues” (WHO,
2015).

Global governance is a product of neo-liberal paradigm shifts in international political

and economic relations. The privileging of capital and market mechanisms over state
authority created governance gaps that have encouraged actors from private and civil
society sectors to assume authoritative roles previously considered the purview of the
State.
Criticisms

However, there have been criticisms by some against the idea of global
governance. For example, the WHO (2015) points out some arguments that critics
make, namely that “Critics argue that global governance mechanisms support the neo-
liberal ideology of globalization and reduce the role of the state (and thus its
sovereignty) to that of an adjusting body for the implementation of international policies.
Some argue that, as a result, the interests of the poorest people and nations will be
ignored unless they have a direct impact on the global economy.”

Gaps

There are a number of gaps within global governance systems. For example, the
World Health Organization (2015) argues that three primary gaps exist. Namely:

The jurisdictional gap, between the increasing need for global governance in many
areas – such as health – and the lack of an authority with the power, or jurisdiction, to
take action.

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GE 5: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: LECTURE NOTES

The incentive gap, between the need for international cooperation and the motivation to
undertake it. The incentive gap is said to be closing as globalization provides increasing
impetus for countries to cooperate. However, there are concerns that, as Africa lags
further behind economically, its influence on global governance processes will diminish.

The participation gap, which refers to the fact that international cooperation remains
primarily the affair of governments, leaving civil society groups on the fringes of policy-
making. On the other hand, globalization of communication is facilitating the
development of global civil society movements.”

Thakur & Weiss (2015) argue that there are five particular “gaps” in global
governance. They are as follows:
Knowledge Gaps
Normative Gaps
Policy Gaps
Institutional Gaps
Compliance Gaps

Knowledge gaps are important because if we do not know the severity of a problem, or
if we don’t have the resources to investigate a particular issue, then this could become
difficult for effective global governance.

Normative Gaps follow knowledge gaps. After we understand that an issue exists, it is
important to establish (and develop) norms to address that problem. This often forms
within societies, but international organizations such as the United Nations also have a
role to form law on the issues (Thakur & Weiss, 2015). Norms are important; they
“matter because people–citizens as well as politicians and officials–care about what
others think of them” (Thakur & Weiss, 2015: 32).
Policy Gaps are related to the specifically policies that one can implement in order to
address the stated problem. When we speak of policy, we are talking about “the
articulated and linked set of governing principles and goals, and the agreed programs of
action to implement those principles and achieve those goals” (Thakur & Weiss, 2015:
33
Institutional Gaps are the challenges of implementing any policies that are put forth by
the international community. If we are speaking about environmental rights abuses,
institutional gaps would include any failures of effective mechanisms to ensure that
environmental law is in place.
Compliance Gaps are one of the final challenges with regards to global governance.
This includes effective implementation, as well as enforcement. Amongst the challenges
is the fact that “recalcitrant or fragile actors may be unwilling or unable to implement
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agreed elements of international policy, for example a ban on commercial whaling, the
acquisition of proliferation-sensitive nuclear technology and material, or the cross-
border movement of terrorist material and personnel” (Thakur & Weiss, 2015: 36). Or, it
might be difficult to enforce penalties on violators.

LESSON 6: GLOBAL DIVIDES

Globalization makes people connected and this interconnectedness is part of

our daily life. This leads to the so called global divide, the Global North and Global
South. The terms “Global North” and “Global South” divide the world in half both
geographically.
According to Karpilo (2018), the Global North contains all countries north of
the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere and the Global South holds all of the countries
south of the Equator in the Southern Hemisphere.
. Kwarteng and Botch way (2018) stated that “The North and South divide in the
practice and application of international laws have been previously perceived to be
evident in international environmental law where the Global developed North countries
on the one hand advocate for a collective action to protect the environment while the
Global developing Southern countries, on the other hand, argue for social and economic
justice in practice.
The world is divided in terms of development and wealth. Back in 1980s, the world was
geographically split into relatively richer and poorer nations. In order to show this
phenomena, the Brandt Line was developed.
According to this model, the Northern Hemisphere is where richer countries
situated, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, whereas, in the Southern
Hemisphere is the place of poorer countries. This shows the concept of a gap between
the Global North and the Global South

Mahler (2017) coined three primary definitions of Global South. First, it has
traditionally been used within intergovernmental development organizations –– primarily
those that originated in the Non-Aligned Movement –– to refer to economically
disadvantaged nation-states and as a post-cold war alternative to “Third World.”
However, the term Global South is employed in a post-national sense to address
spaces and peoples negatively impacted by contemporary capitalist globalization.

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The term “Third World” countries was coined by Alfred Sauvy, a French
demographer, after World War II and during the Cold War-era. It is also the tagged to
those countries that did not align with democratic or communist countries. This
eventually evolved to refer levels of development. The Third World included the
developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Nevertheless, the concept of the Global South shares some of the limitations
of the concept of the Third World. It evokes imaginations of a geographical North-South
divide, which does not correspond to the complex entanglements and uneven
developments in the real world. Areas incorporated under the label Global South can
also be found in the geographical North. Ethnic ghettos and barrios in US American
cities are one example; the “Latinoization” of the US is another. And the gated
communities of the cosmopolitan elite in Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, or Santiago de
Chile have more in common with their counterparts in Miami, L.A. or Chicago than with
the surrounding barrios, marginales and favelas

LESSON 7: ASIAN REGIONALISM

“Regionalism is an approach to study the behaviour that emphasizes the

geographical region as the unit of analysis, stressing the relationship between man and
his immediate physical environment. Economic social and cultural organisations are
analyzed in terms of their interrelationships and functions within the geographic region”

The term `regionalism’ conveys the sense of intentional, top-down region-building

—involving inter-governmental collaboration. `Regionalization’, on the other hand, refers
to the growing density of interaction and co-operation between neighboring countries.
But for He and Inoguchi (2011), Regionalism is an inspirational and revolutionary
involving the reorganization of political, economic, cultural, and social lives along the
lines of an imagined region rather than according to the standard political unit of the
nation-state.

Regionalization and Globalization

Regionalism and globalization are two different concepts which are interrelated.
Regionalism is the process through which geographical regions become significant
political and/or economic units serving as the basis for cooperation and possibly identity
whereas, Globalization is the interconnectedness and interdependence of states,
forming a process of international integration arising from the interchange of world
views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.

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INSTRUCTOR, GE 5
GE 5: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: LECTURE NOTES

Benefit of Regionalism
According to ADB report (2008), the following are benefits of Asia from regionalism,
namely:
1. link the competitive strengths of its diverse economies in order to boost their
productivity and sustain the region’s exceptional growth;
2. connect the region’s capital markets to enhance financial stability, reduce the cost
of capital, and improve opportunities for sharing risks;
3. cooperate in setting exchange rate and macroeconomic policies in order to
minimize the effects of global and regional shocks and to facilitate the resolution of
global imbalances;
4. pool the region’s foreign exchange reserves to make more resources available for
investment and development;
5. exercise leadership in global decision making to sustain the open global trade and
financial systems that have supported a half century of unparalleled economic
development;
6. build connected infrastructure and collaborate on inclusive development to reduce
inequalities within and across economies and thus to strengthen support for pro-
growth policies; and
7. create regional mechanisms to manage cross-border health, safety, and
environmental issues better.

Characteristics of Regionalism
1. Local Identity. Strong local identity and a loyalty to the region. Politicians and many
residents feel pride in the local culture and its people. Politicians try to exploit that
identity to gain supporters for their proposals. They often claim that the regional
interest should always come before the national interest. Moreover, emphasizes
local development and well-being, at times without considering other regions.
2. Autonomy. Greater autonomy is another characteristic and a priority of regionalism.
It can be economic, in the form of more power to administer economic resources
and modify fiscal policies; it can also be political, with stronger local institutions and
the ability to pass laws and enforce local policies
Factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian region
1. Trade. The world economy is intertwined with each other whether we like it or not.
We all want or need something from another part of the world, and global trade
facilitates that.
2. Similar Culture. The cultures of Asia is diverse but they do share many things.
This makes it an easier fit during times of negotiations.
3. Common Goals. The Asian region recognizes the mutual benefit of a slow
integration. The territories involved are not far from each other and the
industriousness of its population can work as a powerful negotiating block against
those from other parts of the world.
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INSTRUCTOR, GE 5
GE 5: THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD: LECTURE NOTES

LESSON 8: Intercontinental Drift: Culture, Media and Globalization

Globalization is “a process through which events, decisions, and activities in

one part of the world can come to have significant consequences for individuals and
communities in quite distant parts of the globe.” Globalization creates and avenue
where the fraternization of cultures become possible despite the evident constraints due
to geographical segregation. Martin Khor, the former President of the Third World
Networks in Malaysia, considers globalization as a form of colonization

Function
The understanding of the relation between media and globalization should not be
restricted to the differences of internet speed among countries; which country is the
leading giant in technology production; or to the number of views a worldwide movie
premiere has. Being active users of media, it is also our duty to look into the effects of
this consumerist attitude to our cultural identity, ideology, and value systems. Aside
from the evident “uneven” process of media globalization occurring worldwide, which
implies that its effects and consequences are not identically experienced, globalists
recognize a certain “power geometry” at work. Accordingly, it talks about the idea that
some groups are more in-command than others in terms of the proliferation of ideas and
to an extent specific interests – a dictator.
The global sphere is continuously being bombarded and affected with media messages
carrying western ideology to a point that, some would believe, intimidates the rest of the
world’s native thoughts and philosophies. Being rational creatures faced with the real
threat of losing a nation’s identity due to cultural imperialism, several coping
mechanisms come into play. One of these movements is dedicated toward opposing the
blind acceptance of foreign cultures is called contra-flows

Another alternative to cultural imperialism is known as cultural hybridity,

hybridization, this perspective highlights the interface of globalization and localization
as traditions and other cultural forms diffuse with the mainstream. This entails changing
some of the aspects of mainstream culture to match the needs of locality. According to
research, the following are the key features of hybridization:

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a. Mixing previously separate cultural systems, such as mixing elite art of opera with
popular music;
b. Deterritorialization of cultural processes from their original physical environment
to new foreign contexts and;
c. Impure cultural genres that are formed out of the mixture of several cultural
domains.

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INSTRUCTOR, GE 5