AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE STUDENT
Why do you need to study the world?
• the world, as a concept, is abstract.
• your daily experiences are considered
interactions with your country.
• When you read the news, you read about the
Philippines. When you engage in an official
transaction like paying taxes, you deal with the
Philippine government. Almost all of your
classmates and teachers are Filipino.
However, you only need to step back a little bit to see
that the world out there is already here. For example,
you likely have relatives who are overseas Filipino
workers. Every time these relatives visit or sent
something home, they are bringing part of the world
with them. Even if you have not travelled outside the
Philippines, you have likely heard stories about
foreign countries from these family members. Some
relatives might have told you about the wonders of
room. Others may have shown new pictures of San
Francisco’s golden gate bridge. Others they have
describe the lights and towering buildings of Shinjuku.
Needless to say, the media and the internet are
also your windows to the contemporary world. You
watch American movies and can probably sing at
least one K-pop song. If a major political event occurs,
you don't even need to go to cnn.com to find out more
details since friends are already posting articles on
Facebook.
Finally, your consumption habits are global.
You have dined in a McDonald’s, riding' in a Japanese
car, maybe own a Korean mobile phone, and eaten
Australian beef.
You are already a citizen of the world whether you
are aware of it or not. Just by living your life, you
automatically think about the contemporary world.
This course will be your guide.
THE RELEVANCE OF THIS COURSE
As the semester progresses, we expect you to realize
the relevance of the material gradually. The
succeeding lessons will introduce you to the major
themes in the study of the world while providing
opportunities for you to connect this knowledge with
your experiences as a Filipino student. At the outset,
though, why study this course? Why is it required for
all students in higher education?
1. Studying the outside world is a cure to
parochialism or an outlook that is limited to one's
immediate community.
• A person who is concerned only with his or
her family, village, or even country is
parochial.
• The parochial person is, thus, close minded.
• By teaching you about the world, this
course aims to stretch the limits of your
imagination and outlook.
• We will share with you unfamiliar ideas and
cultures that may spark new interests and
concerns. Not everything in this book will
excite you, and that is fine. However, we
hope that, at the end of the semester, you
would have discovered new intellectual
interests that you will continue to pursue. We
also wish for you to explore the places,
peoples, ideas, and cultures that you care
about and value. This expansion of one's
ethical horizons, as you will see, is the very
core of what it means to be a global citizen.
2. It is important to study the world because it can
teach you more about yourself.
• Knowing about other countries allows you
to compare your society with others.
• The experiences of communities outside
the Philippines may provide solutions to
many of the country's current problems. They
may also provide warnings about what not to
do.
• Everyone, for example, Visayas economic
growth. Isn't it beneficial if policymakers know
what economic models and policies have
work for other countries and what have not?
 Philippine national hero Jose Rizal said that
anyone who has learned about the world will
be haunted by the ghost of comparisons.
Once you know about other societies, he
says you will not be able to look at your own
in the same way. You will start comparing and
asking various questions. This drive to
compare will happen even when you least
expect it, the earth's is like a ghost that
suddenly appears.
3. You need to study the world because you
will be interacting with it.
• In 2009, an average of 4018 Filipinos per day
left to become ofw’s. In 2015, that number
increased to 6092. More and more Filipinos are
living and working abroad. For those of you
who plan to work in another country after
graduation, this course can serve as an
orientation. Nevertheless, even those who
choose to remain in the Philippines must
confront the phenomenon of globalization.
Many of you will work for foreign companies
operating in the country, especially because of
the growth of call centers & the business
process outsourcing industry as a whole. Due
to the internet, cheaper travel costs, and larger
trade of goods and services, the world has
grown more interdependent. Filipinos are
increasingly becoming aware of this
interdependence. You cannot avoid
globalization so you might at as well study it.
THIS BOOK'S APPROACH
ü This book will not take you on a country for
country tour of the world.
ü Such an approach is impractical and tedious.
ü Moreover, any good World Almanac can give
you quick overview of these countries.
ü Instead, this book will focus on themes problems
and issues. The goal is not simply to tell you
about
what is out there, but also to expose you to the
ideas that allow you to make sense of that out
there.
ü Central to the study of the world is a concept
of globalization - the deepening global
interconnectedness
of places, ideas, economies, cultures, and
people.
ü The first lesson will discuss this concept further.
However, for now, it is sufficient to say that
studying globalization allows one to step back
and ask what is going on in our world today? as
the study of globalization progress, we will take
your attention deliberately away from the
Philippines.
ü Most of the core courses of this new general
education curriculum asked questions about
yourself in a national context. You study Rizal,
examine primary readings in Philippine history,
and, in the course
understanding the self, as section leads you to
reflect on national identity. These courses are all
necessary that you should reflect about yourself
and your country.
ü Discourse, however, will challenge you to think
beyond your country and ask what it means to
be a citizen of the world. Thus, most of the
examples and case studies will be about peoples
and places outside of the Philippines.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged the need to
connect the study of globalization to local
experiences. For this reason, we will use the box
text with the label localizing the material to
provide examples that are relatable to the
Filipino reader.
Ask for classroom activities, it will be up to your
teacher to integrate, conduct, and facilitate them.
After each lesson, however, we provide guide
questions which you may wish to answer before the
class. As you answer these questions either on a
notebook or just in your own mind, please do not lose
 sight of the main question of the course which is what
does it mean to be a citizen of the world?
The course will be challenging. Much of the materials
you will find our new and unfamiliar. Despite this, we
hope that you will enjoy reading this book and taking
this course. This may be one of the few times in your
life as a college student when you are explicitly
challenged to transcend the borders of your nation,
your countrymen, and ultimately, your imagination.
UNIT 1 STRUCTURES OF GLOBALIZATION
ü this unit will introduce you to the various drivers
of the globalization process, with specific focus
on economics and politics.
ü Although it emphasizes that you experienced
globalization on an everyday level, you must also
realize that there are big institutions that create
large scale changes.
ü This unit will first trace the emergence of these
institutions historically. It too well then move on to
explain how they affect the countries and people
today.
ü It too well then move on to explain how they affect
the countries and people today. The major
learning outcomes of this unit are to colon the
major learning outcomes of this unit are to:
• analyze various contemporary drivers of
globalization; and
•describe the emergence of global economic and
political systems
LESSON 1 WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?
A story: Go, Latif, and the Laksa
When Gio was a second-year international
affairs student in university in Cebu city, she obtained
funding to join the school team participating in an
international model UN competition in Sydney
Australia. At the height of the competition, gia made the
Malaysian team. The two first started talking with Latif
ask from where he was from. Upon discovering that the
do was from the Philippines, Latif lit up and declared
that he was a big fan of Filipino actors Jericho Rosales
and Kristine hermosa. Gio was pleasantly surprised to
learn that Latif had seen every episode of the abs cbn
telenovela pangako sa'yo (the promise). The show had
aired on Malaysian tv a few years back, and it's two
stars had developed a modest following.
Ashamed that he did not know as much about
the Philippines, Gio asked Latif what his country was
like. Latif, he discovered, was from a Muslim university
in Kuala lumpur. You ask him what he liked best about
living in "KL", Kuala lumpur, one can find Chinese,
Indian, and Malay cuisines. He told do that his
assortment of food ways was result of how the British
reorganized Malaysian society during the colonial
times. The British did little to change the way of life of
the Malays who were the original residents but brought
in Chinese laborers to work in the rubber plantations
and tin mines, and Indians to help manage the
bureaucracy serve as initial professional core of a
potential middle class. One of the ways that is ethnic
groups were identified was through their food ways.
According to Latif, Malaysia eventually became
famous for these cuisines which can be found in a
various hawker center across the nation cities and
towns. This food stands are located in outdoor food
parks where locals and tourists taste the best of
Malaysia, from nasi lemak to laksa. Gio interrupted Latif
and asked, "what is laksa?" He felt more ashamed of
his lack of knowledge. "Ahh. . .let me show you what it
is and how it is prepared!" replied Latif.
The next day, Latif took Gio to a Malaysian
restaurant a few blocks away from the university. Gio
was surprised to discover that Malaysian food was
readily available in Sydney. Having noticed this, Latif
explained to his Filipino friend that, over the years, as
more and more Malaysians students moved to Sydney
to study, Malaysian restaurants followed suit. Soon
after, they work catering not only to these students, but
to Australia born Sydneysiders as well, whose culinary
taste we're becoming more and more diverse.
Gio finally had his first taste of laksa rice noodle
soup in a spicy coconut curry sauce. He found the
flavors intense scenes, like most Filipinos, he was not
used to spicy food. However, indifference to his friend,
he persisted and eventually found himself enjoying the
hot dish.
After the meal, Gio and Latif went to a nearby
cafe and order flat white an espresso drink similar to
latte, which is usually served in cafes in Australia and
New Zealand. Both knew what flat white were since
they were Australian inspired to face in both Kuala
lumpur and Cebu.
The new friends promised to stay in touch after
the competition and added each other on Facebook
and Instagram. Over the next two years, they
exchanged emails and post, congratulating each other
for their achievements, and commented on and liked
each other's photos. Latif sent his mother’s recipe to
Gio and the latter began cooking Malaysian food in his
home.
A few years after graduation, he moved to
Singapore, joining many other overseas Filipino
workers or ofw in this city states. The culture was new
to him. But one thing was familiar: the food served in
Singapore was no different from the Malaysian food he
had discovered through Latif. He would later learn from
Singaporean colleagues that the island country was
once part of the British colonial of Malay and the
postwar dependent federation of Malaysia. Singapore,
however, separated from the federation in august 1965
and became a nation state. Today, they may be two
distinct countries in this part of the world, but Singapore
and Malaysia still share the same cuisine.
After he settled down in his apartment, Gio sought out
and found a favorite laksa in newton hawker center. He
would spend his weekends there with friends eating
Laksa and other dishes. A hawker center in Singapore
One Saturday, while Gio was checking his Facebook
feed along the very busy orchard road--- Singapore
main commercial road---he noticed that Latif had just
posted something 5 minutes earlier. It was a picture
from orchard road. Surprised but also excited, Gio send
Latif a private message. Latif replied immediately
saying that he too had moved to Singapore and was, at
that moment, standing in front a department store just
a few blocks away from where Gio was. The two friends
met up, and after a long hug and quick questions as to
what each was up to, they ducked into a cafè and
renewed their international friendship . . . by ordering a
pair of flat whites
Global Experiences
→ Gio and Latif's story is fictional but very plausible
since it is, in fact, based on the real-life experience of
one of the authors.
→ It was through such friendships that one was able to
appreciate the meaning and impact of globalization.
→ We begin our definition of globalization with this
narrative to illustrate how concrete this phenomenon
is.
→ The story shows how globalization operates at
multiple, intersecting levels.
ü The spread of Filipino TV into Malaysia
suggests how fast this popular culture has
proliferated and crisscrossed all over Asia.
ü The Model UN activities that Gio and Latif
participated in is an international competition
about international politics.
ü Gio met Latif (a Malaysian involved in the
model UN) in Sydney, a global city that
derives its wealth and influence from the
 global capital that also sell their products
abroad.
ü After them two had gone back to their home
countries, Gio and Latif kept in touch through
Facebook, a global social networking site
that provides instantaneous communication
across countries and continents.
ü They preserved their friendship online and
then rekindled this face-to-face in Singapore,
another hub for global commerce, with 40
percent of the population being classified as
"foreign talents.
Some Description
ü Our discussion should begin with this intuitive sense
that something is happening, and it is not affecting
everyone in the same way.
ü Gio’s story is a very privileged way of experiencing
global flows, but for other people, the shrinking of the
world may not be as exciting and edifying.
ü For example,
- it is very common for young women in
developing countries to be recruited in
the internet as “mail-order brides” for
foreign men living in other countries.
After being promised a good life once
married to a king husband in a rich city,
they end up becoming sexual and
domestic servants in foreign lands.
- Some were even sold off by their
“husbands” to gangs which run
prostitute rings in these cities.
ü Like Gio, they too have experienced the shrinking of
the world, albeit negatively.
ü Governments that decide to welcome the foreign
investments on the belief that they provide jobs and
capital for the country offer public lands as factory or
industrial sites.
ü In the process, poor people living in these lands, also
called “urban poor communities,” are being evicted by
the government. The irony is that these people
forcibly removed from their “slims” are also the labor
force sought by foreign companies. They had to be
kicked out of their home, and then told that they could
take an hour or two of bus travel from their relocated
communities back to the “old home” for minimum-
wage work.
ü Because different people encounter globalization
in a variety of ways, it is deemed useful to ask simple
question like: “Is globalization good or bad? Is it
beneficial or detrimental?” the discussion begins with
two premises.
1.First, globalization is a complex phenomenon that
occurs at multiple levels.
2.it is an uneven process that affects people
differently.
Globalization: A Working Definition
ü Most accounts view globalization as primarily an
economic process. When a newspaper reports
that nationalists are resisting “globalization,” it
usually refers to the integration of the national
markets to a wider global market signified by the
increased free trade.
ü When activists refer to the “antiglobalization”
movement of the 1990s, they mean resisting the
trade deals among countries facilitated and
promoted by global organizations like the World
Trade Organization.
ü Globalization scholars do not necessarily
disagree with people who criticize unfair
international trade deals or global economic
organizations. In fact, many are sympathetic to
the critique of economic globalization.
ü Academics differ from journalists and
political activists, however, because they see
globalization in much broader terms. They view
the process through various lenses that consider
multiple theories and perspectives.
ü Academics call this an interdisciplinary
approach, and it is this approach used by the
general education (GE) courses that you will be
taking alongside this one.
ü The best scholarly description of globalization is
provided by Manfred Steger who described the
process as “the expansion and intensification of
social relations and consciousness across world
time and across world-space.” Expansion refers
to “both the creation of new social networks and
the multiplication of existing connections that cut
across traditional political, economic, cultural,
and geographic boundaries.”
ü These various connections occur at different
levels. Social media, for example, establish new
global connections between people, while
international groups of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) are networks that
connect a more specific group---social worker
and activists. from different corners of the globe.
In the story, Gio was able to join a Model UN
competition because his university was part of an
international network.
ü Intensification refers to the expansion,
stretching, and acceleration of these networks.
Not only are global connections multiplying, but
they are also becoming more closely-knit and
expanding their reach.
• For example, there has always been a strong
financial market connecting London and New
York. With the advent of electronic trading,
however, the volume of that trade increases
exponentially, since traders can now trade
more at higher speeds. The connection thus
accelerating.
• Apart from this acceleration, however, as the
world becomes more financially integrated, the
intensified trading network between London
and New York may expand and stretch to cover
more and more cities.
• After China committed itself to the global
economy in the 1980s, for example, Shanghai
steadily returned to its old role as a major
trading post. It is not only in financial matters
that you can find these connections.
• In 2012, when the monsoon rains flooded much
of Bangkok, the Honda plant making some of
the critical car parts temporarily ceased
production. This had a strong negative effect
on Honda-USA which relied heavily on the
parts being imported from Thailand. Not only
was it unable to reach the sale targets it laid
out, but the ability of the service centers
nationwide to assist Honda owners also
suffered. As a result, the Japanese car
company’s global profits also fell. The final
attribute of this definition relates to the way
people perceive time and space.
ü Steger notes that “globalization processes do not
occur merely at an objective, material level but
they also involve the subjective plane of human
consciousness.” In other words, people begin to
feel that the world has become a smaller place
and distance has collapsed from thousands of
miles to just a mouse click away. One can now e-
mail a friend in another country and get a reply
instantaneously, and as a result, begins to
perceive their distance as less consequential.
Cable TV and the internet has also exposed one
to news from across the globe, so now, he/she
has this greater sense of what is happening in
other places.
ü Steger posits that his definition of globalization
must be differentiated with an ideology he calls
globalism. If globalization represents the many
processes that allow for the expansion and
intensification of global connections, globalism is
a widespread belief among powerful people that
the global integration of economic markets is
beneficial for everyone, since it spreads freedom
and democracy across the world.
ü It is a common belief forwarded in media and
policy circles. In the next lesson, you will realize
why it is problematic. For now, what is crucial to
note is that when activists and journalists criticize
“globalization,” they are, more often than not,
criticizing some manifestations of globalism.
 Often, these criticisms are warranted. will focus on a particular kind of globalization. Every
Nevertheless, it is crucial to insist that one of them will be about different networks and
“globalization” as a process refers to a larger connections that are expanding and intensifying in the
phenomenon that cannot simple be reduced to contemporary world.
the ways in which global markets have been LESSON 2:THE GLOBALIZATION OF WORLD
integrated. ECONOMICS

→ The International Monetary Fund (IMF) regards

Conclusion: Globalization from the Ground Up
“economic globalization” as a historical process
• All this talk of large, intersecting processes may
representing the result of human innovation and
be confusing. Indeed, it may be hard to asses’
technological progress.
globalization or comment on it because it is so diffuse
→ It is characterized by the increasing integration of
and almost fleeting. Some scholars have, therefore,
economies around the world through the movement
found it simpler to avoid talking about globalization as
of goods, services, and capital across borders.
a whole. Instead, they want to discuss “multiple
→ These changes are the products of people,
globalizations,” instead of just one process.
organizations, institutions, and technologies.
• For anthropologist Arjun Appadurai, different
→ As with all other processes of globalization, there is a
kinds of globalization occur on multiple and
qualitative and subjective element to this definition.
intersecting dimensions of integration that he calls
“scapes.” An “ethnoscape,” for example, refers to the
How does one define “increasing integration”? When is it
global movement of people, while a “mediascape” is
considered that trade has increased? Is there a particular
about the flow of culture. A “technoscape” refers to
threshold?
the circulation of mechanical goods and software; a
“finances cape” denotes the global circulation of
→ Even while the IMF and ordinary people grapple with
money; and an “icescape” is the realm where political
the difficulty of arriving at precise definitions of
ideas move around. Although the intersect, these
globalization, they usually agree that a drastic
various scopes have differing logics. They are thus
economic change is occurring throughout the world.
distinct windows into the broader phenomenon of
→ According to the IMF, the value of trade (goods and
globalization.
services) as a percentage of world GDP increased
• Appadurai’s argument is simple: there are
from 42.1 percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007.
multiple globalizations Hence, even if one does not
→ Increased trade also means that investments are
agree that globalization can be divided into five
moving all over the world at faster speeds.
“scapes,” it is hard to deny Appadurai’s central thrust
→ According to the United Nations Conference on
of viewing globalization through various lenses.
trade and development (UNCTAD), the amount of
Depending on what is being globalized, a different
foreign direct investments flowing across the world
dynamic (or dynamics) may emerge. So, while it is
was US$57 billion in 1982. By 2015, that number was
important to ask “What is globalization?” it is likewise
$1.76 trillion. These figures represent a dramatic
important to ask “What is/are being globalized?”
increase in global trade in the span of just a few
• Depending on what is being globalized, the vista
decades. It has happened not even after one human
and conclusions change. The structure of the lessons
lifespan!
that follow will reflect this multidimensional
understanding of globalization. Each of the lessons
→ Apart from the sheer magnitude of commerce, we
should also note the increased speed and
frequency of trading.
→ These days, supercomputers, can execute millions of
stock purchases and sales between different cities in
a matter of seconds through a process called high
frequency trading.
→ Even the items being sold and traded are changing
drastically.
→ Ten years ago, buying books or music indicates
acquiring physical items.
→ Today, however, a “book” can be digitally
downloaded to be read with an e-reader, and a music
“album” refers to the 15 songs on mp3 format you can
purchase and download from iTunes.
International Trading Systems
→ International trading systems are not new.
Silk Road
→ The oldest known international trade route
→ a network of pathways in the ancient world that
spanned from China to what is now the Middle
East and to Europe.
→ It was called as such because one of the most
profitable products traded through this network was
silk, which was highly prized especially in the area
that is now the Middle East as well as in the West
(today’s Europe).
→ Traders used the Silk Road regularly from 130 BCE
when the Chines Han dynasty opened trade to the
West until 1453 BCE when the Ottoman Empire
closed it.
→ However, while the Silk Road was international, it was
not truly “global” because it had no ocean routes
that could reach the American continent.
So when did full economic globalization begin?
→ According to historian 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 values
sufficient to generate crucial impacts on all trading
partners. Flynn and Giraldez trace this back to 1571
with the establishment of the galleon trade that
connected Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco in
Mexico. This was the first time that the Americas were
directly connected to Asian trading routes.
→ For Filipinos, it is crucial to note that economic
globalization began on the country’s shores
age of mercantilism
→ The galleon trade was part of the age of
th
mercantilism. From the 16th century to the 18
century, counties, primarily in Europe, competed with
one another to sell more good as a means to boost
their country’s income (called monetary reserves
later on).
→ To defend their products from competitors who sold
goods more cheaply, these regimes (mainly
monarchies) imposed high tariffs, forbade colonies to
trade with other nations, restricted trade routes, and
subsidized its exports.
→ Mercantilism was thus also a system of global trade
with multiple restrictions.
Gold Standard
→ A more open trade system emerged in 1867
when, following the lead of the United Kingdom,
the United States and other European nations
adopted the gold standard at an international
monetary conference in Paris.
→ Broadly, its goal was to create a common
system that would allow for more efficient trade
and prevent the isolationism of the mercantilist
era
→ The countries thus established a common basis
for currency prices and a fixed exchange rate
system—all based on the value of gold
→ Despite facilitating simpler trade, the gold
standard was still a very restrictive system, as it
compelled countries to back their currencies with
fixed gold reserves.
→ During World War I, when counties depleted
their gold reserves to fund their armies, many
were forced to abandon the gold standard. Since
European countries had low gold reserves, they
adopted floating currencies that were no longer
The Bretton Woods System
redeemable in gold.
→ Returning to a pure standard became more
difficult as the global economic crisis called the
Great Depression
- started during the 1920s and extended
up to the 1930s, further emptying
government coffers.
- This depression was the worst and the
longest recession ever experienced by
the Western world.
- Some economists argued that it was
largely caused by the gold standard,
since it limited the amount of circulating
money and, therefore, reduced demand
and consumption.
- If governments could only spend money
that was equivalent to gold, its capacity
to print money and increase the money
supply was severely curtailed.
→ Economic historian Barry Eichengreen argues
that the recovery of the United States really
began when, having abandoned the gold
standard, the US government was able to free
up money to spend on reviving the economy.
→ At the height of World War II, other major
industrialized countries followed suit
→ Though more indirect versions of the gold
standard were used until as late as 1970s, the
world never returned to the gold standard of the
early 20th century.
→ Today, the world economy operates based on
what are called fiat currencies-that are not
backed by precious metals and whose value is
determined by their cost relative to other
currencies. This system allows governments to
freely and actively manage their economies by
increasing or decreasing the amount of money in
circulation as they see fit.
→ After the two world wars, world leaders sought
to create a global economic system that would
ensure a longer-lasting global peace.
→ They believed that one of the ways to achieve this
goal was to set up a network of global financial
institutions that would promote economic
interdependence in 1944 during the United
Nations Monetary and Financial Conference to
prevent the catastrophes of the early decades of
the century from the reoccurring and affecting
international ties.
→ The Bretton Woods system was largely
influenced by the ideas of British economist John
Maynard Keynes who believed the economic
crises occur not when a country does not have
enough money, but when money is not being
spent and, thereby, not moving.
→ When economies slow down, according to
Keynes, governments have to reinvigorate
markets with infusions of capital.
→ This active role of governments in managing
spending served as the anchor for what would be
called a system of global Keynesianism
→ Delegates at Bretton Woods agreed to create two
financial institutions.
1.The first was the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, or
World Bank) to be responsible for funding
postwar reconstruction projects. It was a critical
institution at a time when many of the world’s
cities had been destroyed by the war.
2.The second institution was the International Monetary to resupply the Israeli military with the needed
Fund (IMF), which was to be the global lender last resort arms during the Yom Kippur War.
to prevent individual countries from spiraling into credit → Arab countries also used the embargo to
crises. If economic growth in a country slowed down stabilize their economies and growth.
because there was not enough money to stimulate the → The “oil embargo” affected the Western
economy, the IMF would step in. to this day, both economies that were reliant on the oil.
institutions remain key players in economic globalization. → To make matters worse, the stock markets
crashed in 1973-1974 after the United States
→ Shortly after Bretton Woods, various countries also
stopped linking the dollar to gold, effectively
committed themselves to further global economic
ending the Bretton Woods system.
integration through the General Agreement on
The result was a phenomenon that Keynesianism
Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947.
economics could not have predicted—a
→ GATT’s main purpose was to reduce tariffs and
phenomenon called stagflation,
other hindrances to free trade.
- in which a decline in economic growth
Neoliberalism and Its Discontents and employment (stagnation) takes
place alongside a sharp increase in
→ The high point of global Keynesianism came in
prices (inflation)
the mid-1940s to early 1970s.
→ Around this time, a new form of economic thinking
→ During this period, governments poured money
was beginning to challenge the Keynesian
into their economies, allowing people to purchase
orthodoxy.
more goods and, in the process, increase
→ Economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton
demand for these products.
Friedman argued that the governments’ practice of
→ As demand increased, so did the prices of these
pouring money into their economies had caused
goods.
inflation by increasing demand for goods without
→ Western and some Asian economies like
necessarily increasing supply.
Japan accepted this rise in prices because it was
→ More profoundly, they argued that government
accompanied by general economic growth and
intervention in economies distort the proper
reduced unemployment.
functioning of the market.
→ The theory went that, as prices increased,
companies would earn more, and would have
→ Economists like Friedman used the economic turmoil
more money to hire workers.
to challenge the consensus around Keynes’s ideas.
→ Keynesianism economists believed that all this
→ What emerged was a new form of economic
was a necessary trade-off for economic
thinking that critics labeled neoliberalism.
development
→ From the 1980s onward, neoliberalism became the
codified strategy of the United States Treasury
→ In the early 1970s, however, the prices of oil rose
Department, the World Bank, the IMF,
sharply as a result of the Organization of Arab
→ World Trade Organization (WTO)—a new
Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OAPEC, the
organization founded in 1995 to continue the tariff
Arab member- countries of the Organization of
reduction under the GATT.
Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC)
→ The policies they forwarded came to be called the
imposition of an embargo in response to the
Washington Consensus
decision of the United States and other countries
The Washington Consensus → The IMF assumed that such a move would free these
industries from corrupt bureaucrats and pass them on
→ dominated global economic policies from the 1980s
to the dynamic and independent private investors.
until the early 2000s.
What happened, however, was that only individuals
→ Its advocates pushed for minimal government
and groups who had accumulated wealth under the
spending to reduce government-controlled services
previous communist order had the money to purchase
like water, power, communications, and transport,
these industries.
believing that the free market can produce the best
→ In some cases, the economic elites relied on easy
results.
access to government funds to take over the
→ Finally, they pressured governments, particularly in
industries
the developing world, to reduce tariffs and open up
→ This practice has entrenched an oligarchy that still
their economies, arguing that it is the quickest way to
dominates the Russian economy to this very day
progress.
→ Advocates of the Washington Consensus conceded The Global Financial Crisis and the Challenge to
that, along the way, certain industries would be Neoliberalism
affected and die, but they considered this “shock
→ Russia’s case was just one example of how the
therapy” necessary for long-term economic growth
“shock therapy” of neoliberalism did not lead to ideal
→ The appeal of neoliberalism was in its simplicity.
outcomes predicted by economists who believed in
→ It advocates like US President Ronald Regan and
perfectly free markets.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher justified their
→ The greatest recent repudiation of this thinking was
reduction in government spending by comparing
the recent global financial crisis 2008- 2009.
national economies to households.
→ Thatcher, in particular, promoted an image of herself
→ Neoliberalism came under significant strain during the
as a mother, who reined in overspending to reduce
global financial crisis of 2007- 2008 when the world
the national debt
experienced the greatest economic downturn since
→ The problem with the household analogy is that
the Great Depression.
governments are not households.
→ The crisis can be tracked back to the 1990s when the
→ For one, governments can print money, while
United States systematically removed various
households cannot.
banking and investment restrictions.
→ Moreover, the constant taxation systems of
→ The scaling back of regulations continued until the
governments provide them a steady flow of income
2000s, paving the way for a brewing crisis.
that allows them to pay and refinance debts steadily.
→ In their attempt to promote the free market,
government authorities failed to regulate bad
→ Despite the initial success of neoliberal politicians
investments occurring in the US housing market.
like Thatcher and Regan, the defects of the
Taking advantage of “cheap housing loans,”
Washington Consensus became immediately
Americans began building houses that were beyond
palpable.
their financial capacities.
→ A good early example is that of post-communist
→ To migrate the risk of these loans, banks that were
Russia.
lending house owners’ money pooled these mortgage
→ After Communism had collapsed in the 1990s, the
payments and sold them as “mortgage-backed
IMF called for the immediate privatization of all
securities” (MBSs).
government industries.
→ One MBS would be a combination of multiple
mortgages that they assumed would pay a steady
rate.
→ Since there was so much surplus money circulating,
the demand for MBSs increased as investors
clamored for more investment, the banks became
less discriminating.
→ They began extending loans to families and
individuals with dubious credit records—people who
were unlikely to pay their loans back.
→ These high-risk mortgages became known as sub-
prime mortgages
→ Financial experts wrongly assumed that, even if
many of the barrowers were individuals and families
who would struggle to pay, a majority would not
default.
→ Moreover, banks thought that since there were so
many mortgages in just one MBS, a few failures
would not ruin the entirety of the investment.
→ Banks also assumed that housing prices would
continue to increase.
→ Therefore, even if homeowners defaulted on their
loans, these banks could simply reacquire the homes
and sell them at a higher price, turning a profit.
→ Sometime in 2007, however, home prices stopped
increasing as supply caught up with demand.
→ Moreover, it slowly became apparent that families
could not pay off their loans.
→ This realization triggered the rapid reselling of MBSs,
as banks like Lehman Brothers collapsed, thereby
depleting major investments.
→ The crisis spread beyond the United States since
many investors were foreign governments,
corporations, and individuals.
→ The loss of their money spread like wildfire back
to their countries.
→ These series of interconnections allowed for a
global multiplier effect that sent ripples across the
world.
→ For example, Iceland’s banks heavily depended on
foreign capital, so when the crisis hit them, they failed
to refinance their loans. As a result of this credit
crunch, three of Iceland’s top commercial banks
defaulted. From 2007 to 2008, Iceland’s debt
increased more than seven-fold.
→ Until now, countries like Spain and Greece are heavily
indebted (almost like Third World countries), and debt
relief has come at a high price.
→ Greece, in particular has been forced by Germany
and the IMF to cut back on its social and public
spending.
→ Affecting services like pensions, health care, and
various forms of social security, these cuts have been
felt most acutely by the poor.
→ Moreover, the reduction in government spending has
slowed down growth and ensured high levels of
unemployment.
→ The United States recovered relatively quickly
thanks to a large Keynesian style stimulus package
that President Barrack Obama pushed for in his first
months in office. The same cannot be said for many
other countries.
→ In Europe, the continuing economic crisis has
sparked a political upheaval.
→ Recently, far-right parties like Marine Le Pen’s Front
National in France have risen to prominence by
unfairly blaming immigrants for their woes, claiming
that they steal jobs and leech off welfare.
→ These movements blend popular resentment with
utter hatred and racism.
Economic Globalization Today
→ The global financial crisis will take decades to resolve.
→ The solution proposed by certain nationalist and leftist
groups of closing national economies to world trade,
however, will no longer work.
→ The world has become integrated. Whatever, one’s
opinion about the Washington Consensus is, it is
undeniable that some form of international trade
remains essential for countries to develop in the
contemporary world
→ Exports, not just the local selling of goods and
services, make national economies grow at present.
→ In the past, those that benefited the most from free
trade were the advanced nations that were
producing and selling industrial and agricultural
goods.
→ The United States, Japan, and the member-countries
of the European Union were responsible for 65
percent of global exports, while the developing
countries only accounted for 29 percent.
→ When more countries opened up their economies to
take advantage of increased free trade, the shares of
the percentage began to change.
→ By 2011, developing countries like the Philippines,
India, China, Argentina, and Brazil accounted for 51
percent of global exports while the share of advanced
nations—including the United States—had gone
down to 45 percent.
→ The WTO-led reduction —of trade barriers, known
as trade liberalization, has profoundly altered the
dynamics of the global economy.
→ In the recent decades, partly as a result of these
increased exports, economic globalization has
ushered in an unprecedented spike in global growth
rates.
→ According to the IMF, the global per capita GDP
rose over five-fold in the second half of the 20th
century.
→ It was this growth that created the large Asian
economies like Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, and
Singapore.
→ And yet, economic globalization remains an uneven
process, with some countries, corporations, and
individuals benefiting a lot more than others.
→ The series of trade talks under the WTO have led
to unprecedented reductions in tariffs and other trade
barriers, but these processes have often been unfair.
→ First, developed countries are often protectionists,
as they repeatedly refuse to lift policies that safeguard
their primary products that could otherwise be
overwhelmed by imports from the developing world.
→ The best example of this double standard is
• Japan’s justification is that rice is “sacred.”
Ultimately, it is its economic muscle as the
third largest economy that allows it to resist
pressures to open its agricultural sector.
• The United States likewise fiercely protects
its sugar industry, forcing consumers and
sugar dependent businesses to pay higher
prices instead of getting cheaper sugar from
plantations of Central America.
→ Faced with these blatantly protectionist measures
from powerful countries and blocs, poorer
countries can do very little to make economic
globalizations more just.
→ Trade imbalances, therefore, characterize
economic relations between developed and
developing countries
→
→ The beneficiaries of global commerce have
been mainly transnational corporations (TNCs)
and not governments.
→ And like any other business, these TNCs are
concerned more with profits than with assisting
the social programs of the governments hosting
them.
→ Host countries, in turn, loosen tax laws, which
prevents wages from rising, while sacrificing
 social and environmental programs that protect
the underprivileged members of their societies.
→ The term “race to the bottom” refers to
countries’ lowering their labor standards,
including the protection of workers’ interests, to
lyre in foreign investors seeking high profit
margins at the lowest cost possible.
→ Governments weaken environmental laws to
attract investors, creating fatal consequences on
their ecological balance and depleting them of
their finite resources (like oil, and minerals).
CONCLUSION
→ International economic integration is a central
tenet of globalization.
→ In fact, it is crucial to the process that many
writers and commentators confuse this
integration for the entirely of globalization.
→ As a reminder, economics is just one window into
the phenomenon of globalization; it is not the
entire thing.
→ Nevertheless, much globalization is anchored on
changes in the economy.
→ Global culture, for example, is facilitated by trade.
Filipinos would not be as aware American culture
if not for the trade that allows locals to watch
American culture if not for trade that allows locals
to watch American movies, listen to American
music, and consume American products.
→ The globalization of politics is likewise largely
contingent on trade relations.
→ These days, many events of foreign affairs are
conducted to cement trading relations between
and among states.
→ Given the stakes involved in economic
globalization, it is perennially important to ask
how this system can be made more just. Although
some elements of global free trade can be scaled
back, policies cannot do away with it as a whole.
→ International policymakers, therefore, should
strive to think of ways to make trading ideals
fairer.
→ Governments must also continue to devise ways
of cushioning the most damaging effects of
economic globalization, while ensuring that its
benefits for everyone.
LESSON 3: A HISTORY OF GLOBAL POLITICS:
CREATING AN INTERNATIONAL ORDER
• The world is composed of many countries or
states, all of them having different forms of
government.
• Some scholars of politics are interested in
individual states and examine the internal politics
of these countries.
• For example, a scholar studying the politics of
Japan may write about the history of its
bureaucracy.
• Other scholars are more interested in the
interactions between states rather than their
internal politics. These scholars look at trade
deals between states.
• They also study political, military, and other
diplomatic engagements between two or more
countries. These scholars are studying
international relations.
• Moreover, when they explore the deepening of
interactions between states, they refer to the
phenomenon of internationalization.
• Internalization does not equal globalization,
although a major part of globalization.
• As we explained in Lesson 1 encompasses a
multitude of connections and interact 100% that
cannot be reduced to the ties between
governments. Nevertheless, it is important to
study international relations as a facet of
globalization because states/governments are
key drivers of global processes.
 • In this lesson we will examine Nation-State
internationalization as one window to view the
Ø is a relatively modern phenomenon in human
globalization of politics
history, and people did not always organize
• Although this course about the contemporary we
themselves as countries
cannot avoid history.
• What international relations are today is largely • At different parts in the history of humanity, people in

defined by events that occurs as far back as 400 various regions of the world have identified exclusively

years ago. with units as small as their village or their tribes, and at

• Don’t worry, we will eventually discuss other times, they see themselves as members of larger

contemporary world politics. But to do that, we political categories like “Christendom” (the entire

need first backward. This lesson will begin with Christian World).

identifying the contemporary global politics and The nation-states is composed of two non-
then proceed to ask: How did this system interchangeable terms.
emerge? In doing so, you will have a solid
Ø Not all states are nations-
foundation to understand the major issues of
Ø Not all nations are states-
global governance in the next lesson.

The Attributes of Today's Global System § The nation of Scotland, for example has its own flag

World politics today has four key attributes and national culture but belongs to a state called
UNITED KINGDOM
1. There are countries or states that are independent and
§ Closer to home, many commentors believe that the
govern themselves.
Bangsamoro is a separate nation existing within the

2. These countries interact with each other through Philippines but through their elites, recognizes the

diplomacy. authority of the Philippine state

3. There are international organizations, If there are states with multiple nations, there are also
single nations with multiple states.
like the United Nations (UN), that facilitate these
interactions. Examples:

4. Beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, The nation of Korea is divided into North and

international organizations also take on lives of their own. South Korea

The Chinese nation may refer to both the
The UN , FOR EXAMPLE, apart from being a meeting
People's Republic of China (the mainland) and
ground for president and other heads Of State, also has
Taiwan
task-specific agencies like the World Health
Organization(WHO) and International Labour What then is the Difference between Nation and

Organization (ILO) State?

What are the Origins of this System? • In Layman's terms, state refers to a country and its
government, i.e, the government of the Philippines.
• A good start is by unpacking what one means when
he/she says a “country”, or what academics also called A state has four attributes.

the nation-states. This concept is not simple as it seems.

1. It exercises authority over a specific population, called
its citizens.
2. It governs a specific territory.
3. A state has a structure of government that crafts
various rules that people (society) follow.
4. And the most crucial, the state has sovereignty over its
territory.
Sovereignty
• Sovereignty here refers to internal and external
authority.
Internally
Ø no individuals or groups can operate in a given
national territory by ignoring the state.
Ø This means that groups like churches, civil
society organizations, corporations and other
entities have to follow the laws of the state where
they establish their parishes, offices, or
headquarters.
Externally
Ø sovereignty means that a state's policies and
procedures are independent of the interventions
of other states.
Ø Russia or China. for example, cannot pass laws
for the Philippines and vice versa.
According to Benedict Anderson
Ø NATION is an “imaged community”.
Ø It is limited because it does not go beyond a
given “official boundary”, and because rights
and responsibilities are mainly the privilege
and concern of the citizens of that nation.
Ø Being limited means that the nation has its
boundaries. This characteristic is in stark
contrast to many religious imagined
communities.
Ø Anyone, for example, can become a Catholic if
one chooses to. In fact, Catholics want more
people to join their community; they refer to it as
the call to discipleship.
Ø But not everyone can simply become a Filipino.
An American cannot simply go to the Philippine
Embassy and ‘’convert" into a Philippine citizen.
Nations often limit themselves to people who have
imbibed a particular culture, speak a common
language, and live in a specific territory.
Calling it "imagined" does not mean that the nation
is made up. Rather, the nation allows one to feel a
connection with a community of people even if he/she
will never meet all of them his/her lifetime.
o When you cheer for a Filipino athlete in the
Olympics, for example, it is not because you
personally know that athlete. Rather, you
imagine your connection as both members of
the same Filipino community.
o In a given national territory like the
Philippine archipelago, you rest in the
comfort that the majority of people living in it
are also Filipinos.
Finally, most nations strive to become states.
ü Nation-builders can only feel a sense of fulfillment
when that national ideal assumes an organizational
form whose authority and power are recognized and
accepted by "the people."
ü Moreover, if there are communities that are not
states, they often seek some form of autonomy within
their "mother states."
o This is why, for example, the nation of
Quebec, though belonging to the state of
Canada, has different laws about language
(they are French-speaking and require
French language competencies for their
citizens).
o It is also for this reason that Scotland, though
part of the United Kingdom, has a strong
 independence movement led by the Scottish Ø lasted from 1803-1815 with Napoleon and his
Nationalist Party armies marching all over much of Europe.
ü Nation and state are closely related because it is
Napoleonic Code
nationalism that facilitates state formation.
ü In the modern and contemporary era. It has been the Ø that forbade birth privileges, encouraged freedom
creation of nation-states. or religion, and promoted meritocracy in
ü States become that independent have allowed and government service.
sovereign because of nationalist sentiment that Ø This system shocked the monarchies and the
clamors for this independence. hereditary elites (dukes, duchesses, etc.) of
Europe, and they mustered their armies to push
Sovereignty
back against the French emperor.
Ø is one of the fundamental principles of modern Ø the French implemented this
state politics.
Anglo and Prussian armies
Ø Understanding how this became the case entails
going back as far as 400 years ago Ø finally defeated Napoleon in the Battle of
Waterloo in 1815,
The Interstate System
Ø ending the latter's mission to spread his liberal
• The origins of the present- day concept of sovereignty code across Europe.
can be traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia, which
To prevent another war and to keep their systems of
was a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the
privilege, the royal powers created a new system that, in
Thirty Years' War between the major continental
effect, restored the Westphalian system that is The
power of Europe.
Concert of Europe
• After a brutal religious war between Catholics and
Protestants, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain, France, The Concert of Europe

Sweden, and the Dutch Republic designed a system

Ø was an alliance of "great powers"—the United
that would avert wars in the future by recognizing that
Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and Prussia—that
the treaty signers exercise complete control over their
sought to restore the world of monarchical,
domestic affairs and swear not to meddle in each
hereditary, and religious privileges of the time
other's affairs.
before the French Revolution and the Napoleonic
Wars.

The Westphalian system • More importantly, it was an alliance that sought to

restore the sovereignty of states.
Ø provided stability for the nations of Europe, until it
• Under this Metternich system (named after the
faced its first major challenge by Napoleon
Austrian diplomat, Klemens von Metternich, who
Bonaparte.
was the system's architect), the Concert’s power and
authority lasted from 1815 to 1914 at the dawn of the
• Bonaparte believed in spreading the principles of the
World War 1.
French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—to
• Despite the challenge of Napoleon to the Westphalian
the rest of Europe and thus challenged the power of
system and the eventual collapse of the Concert of
kings, nobility, and religion in Europe.
Europe after World War l, present-day international
Napoleonic Wars system still has traces of this history. Until now, states
 are considered sovereign, and Napoleonic attempts to
violently impose systems of government in other
countries are frowned upon.
Moreover, like the Concert system, "great powers"
still hold significant influence over world politics.
For example, the most powerful grouping in the UN,
the Security Council, has a core of five permanent
members, all having veto powers over the council's
decision-making process
Internationalism
• The Westphalian and Concert systems divided the
world into separate, sovereign entities. Since the
existence of this interstate system, there have been
attempts to transcend it.
• Some like Bonaparte, directly challenged the system
by infringing on other states' sovereignty, while
others sought to imagine other systems of
governance that go beyond, but do not necessarily
challenge, sovereignty. Still, others imagine a system
of heightened interaction between various sovereign
states, particularly the desire for greater cooperation
and unity among states and peoples. This desire is
called internationalism.
• Internationalism comes in different forms, but the
principle may be divided into two broad categories:
1.liberal internationalism - was the late 18th century
German philosopher Immanuel Kant without the world
government, he argued, the international system
would be chaotic. It is a form of global government.
2.socialist internationalism.
German philosopher Immanuel Kant
ü 18th-century German philosopher
ü 1st major thinker of liberal internationalism
ü Likened states in a global system to people
living in a given territory. If people living together
require a government to prevent lawlessness,
shouldn’t that same principle be applied to
states? Without a form of world government, he
argued, the international system would be
chaotic. Therefore, states, like citizens of
countries, must give up some freedoms and
“establish a continuously growing state consisting
of various nations which will ultimately include the
nations of the world.”
ü imagined a form of global government.
British philosopher Jeremy Bentham
ü Coined the word “international” in 1780
ü Advocated the creation of “international law”
that would govern the inter-state relations. -
Believed that global legislators should aim for
legislation that would create “the greatest
happiness of all nations taken together.”
• To many, these proposals for global government and
international law seemed to represent challenges to
states. Would not a world government, in effect,
become supreme? And would not its laws overwhelm
the sovereignty of individual states?
Italian patriot Giuseppe Mazzini
ü The first thinker to reconcile nationalism with
liberal internationalism was the 19th century
ü both an advocate of the unification of the various
Italian speaking ministates and a major critic of
the Metternich system.
ü He believed in a Republican government
(without kings, queens, and hereditary
succession) and proposed a system of free
nations that cooperated With each other to
create an international system.
ü For Mazzini, free, independent states would be
the basis of an equally free, cooperative
international system.
ü He argued that if the various Italian mini-states
could unify, one could scale up the system to
create, for example, a United States of Europe.
ü a nationalist internationalist, who believes that
free, unified nation-states should be the basis of
global cooperation.
Woodrow Wilson
 ü United States president (1913-1921)
ü one of the 20th century's most prominent
internationalist.
ü Like Mazzini, Wilson saw nationalism as a
prerequisite for internationalism. Because of his
faith in nationalism, he forwarded the principle of
self-determination —the belief that the world's
nations had a right to a free, and sovereign
government.
ü He hoped that these free nations would become
democracies, because only by being such would
they be able to build a free system of international
relations based on international law and
cooperation.
ü Wilson, in short, became the most notable
advocate for the creation of the League of
Nations.
ü At the end of World War I in 1918, he pushed to
transform the League into a venue for conciliation
and arbitration to another war. For his efforts,
Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1919.
ü The League also came into being in 1919.
ü Unfortunately, US was not able to join the League
because of strong opposition from the Senate.
League was also unable to hinder another war from
breaking out. It was tie practically helpless to prevent
the onset and intensification of World War ll. On one
Side of the war were the Axis Powers— Hitler's
Germany, Mussolini's Italy, and Hirohito's Japan—
who were ultra-nationalists that had an instinctive
disdain for internationalism and preferred to violently
impose their dominance over other nations. It was in
the midst of this war between the AXIS Powers and
the Allied Powers (composed of the United States,
United Kingdom, France, Holland, and Belgium) that
internationalism would be eclipsed.
• Despite its failure, the League gave birth to some of
the more task-specific international organizations that
are still around until today, the most popular of which
are the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO)
AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
ORGANIZATION (ILO). More importantly, it would
serve as the blueprint for future forms of international
cooperation. In this respect, despite its organizational
dissolution, the League of Nations' principles survived
World War Il.
• The League was the concretization of the concepts of
liberal internationalism.
o From Kant, it emphasized the need to form
common international principles.
o From Mazzini, it enshrined the principles of
cooperation and respect among nation-states.
o From Wilson, it called for democracy and self-
determination.
These ideas would re-assert themselves in the creation of
the United Nations In 1946 (see next lesson).
Karl Marx
ü One of Mazzini’s biggest critics
ü German socialist philosopher, also an
internationalist
ü Did not believe in nationalism; he believed that
true internationalism should completely reject
nationalism because it rooted people in domestic
concerns instead of global ones.
ü Believed in dividing the world into classes, rather
than countries
→ Capitalist class: owners of factories,
companies, and other means of production
→ Proletariat class: those who didn’t own
means of production; worked for capitalists
ü He and Friedrich Engels believed that in a
socialist revolution seeking to overthrow the
state and the economy, the proletariat “ had no
nation.”
ü Famous battle cry: “Workers of the world, unite!
You have nothing to lose but your chains.”
ü Opposed nationalism because they believed it
prevented the unification of the world’s workers.
 Instead of identifying with other workers, Communist International (Comintern)
nationalism could make workers in individual
Ø The Comintern served as the central body for
countries identify with the capitalists of their own
directing Communist parties all over the world.
countries.
Ø This International was not only more radical than
ü Died in 1883, but his followers continued his
the Socialist International, it was also less
vision by establishing their international
democratic because it followed closely the top-
organization: the Socialist International (SI)
down governance of Bolsheviks
The Socialist International (SI) Ø Many of the world's states feared the Comintern,
believing that It was working in secret to stir up
Ø was a union of European socialist and labor
revolutions in their countries (which was true). A
parties established in Paris in 1889.
problem arose during World War Il when the
Although short-lived, the Sl's achievements
Soviet Union joined the Allied Powers in 1941.
included
The United States and the United Kingdom
→ the declaration of May 1 as Labor Day and
would, of course, not trust the Soviet Union in
→ the creation of an International Women's Day
their fight against Hitler’s Germany. These
→successful campaign for an 8-hour workday.
countries wondered if the Soviet Union was trying
Ø The SI collapsed during World War I as the
to promote revolutions in their backyards. To
member parties refused or were unable to join the
appease his allies, Lenin’s successor, Joseph
internationalist efforts to fight for the war. Many of
Stalin , dissolved the Comintern in 1943.
these sister parties even ended up fighting each
• After the war, however, Stalin re-established the
other. It was a confirmation of Marx's warning:
Comintern as the Communist Information Bureau
when workers and their organizations take the
(Cominform).The Soviet Union took over the
side of their countries instead of each other, their
countries in Eastern Europe when the United States ,
long-term interests are compromised.
the Soviet Union, and Great Britain divided the war-
Ø As the SI collapsed, a more radical version
torn Europe into their respective spheres of influence
emerged.
.The Cominform, like the Comintern before, it helped
Ø In the so-called Russian Revolution of 1917,
direct the various communists parties that had taken
Czar Nicholas Il was Overthrown and replaced by
power in Eastern Europe .
a revolutionary government led by the Bolshevik
• With the eventual collapse of Soviet Union in 1991,
Party and its leader, Vladimir Lemn.
whatever existing thoughts about communist
Ø This new state was called the Union of Soviet
internationalism also practically disappeared. The SI
Socialist Republics, or USSR.
managed to re-establish itself in 1951, but its
Ø Unlike the majority of the member parties of the
influence remained primarily confined to Europe, and
SI, the Bolsheviks did not in obtaining power for
has never been considered a major player in
the working class through elections. they
international relations to this very day.
exhorted the revolutionary "vanguard" parties to
• For the postwar period, however, liberal
lead the revolutions across the world, using
internationalism would once again be ascendant. And
methods of terror if necessary. Today, parties like
the best evidence of this is the rise of the United
this are referred to as Communist parties.
Nations as the center of global governance.
• To encourage these socialist revolutions across the
world, Lenin established the Communist International Conclusion:
(Comintern) in 1919.
• This lesson examined the roots of the international → It is understood as "the management way in which
system. In tracing these roots, a short history of global affairs are managed".
internationalism was provided. → Global governance is thought to be an international
• Moreover, internationalism is but one window into process of consensus - forming which generates
the broader phenomenon of globalization. guidelines and agreements that affect national
Nevertheless, it is a very crucial aspect of governments and international corporations.
globalization since global interactions are heightened
by the increased interdependence of states. This
Increased interdependence manifests itself not just There are many sources of global governance
through State-to-state relations.
→ States sign treaties and form organizations, in the
• Increasingly, international relations are also
process legislating public international law (International
facilitated by international organizations that
rules that are govern interactions between states as
promote global norms and policies. The most
opposed to, say, private companies).
prominent example of this organization, of course, is
→ International non-governmental organizations
the United Nations
(NGO’S), though not having formal state power, can lobby
LESSON 4: THE UNITED NATIONS AND individual states to behave in a certain way (for an
CONTEMPORARY GLOBAL GOVERNANCE international animal protection NGO can pressure
governments to pass animal cruelty laws. Powerful
transnational corporations can likewise have tremendous
INTRODUCTION effects on global labor laws, environmental legislation,
trade policy, etc. Even ideas such as the need for ‘’ global
→ Although many internationalists like Bentham and
democracy ‘’ or the clamor for ‘’ good governance’’ can
Kant imagined the possibility of a global government,
influence the ways international actors behave.
nothing of the sort exist today.
→ there is no one organization that various states are What is an International Organization?
accountable to.
→ When scholars refer to groups like the UN or
→ Moreover, no organization can militarily compel a
institutions like the IMF and the World Bank (see
state to obey predetermined global rules.
lesson 2), they usually call them international
→ However, there is some regularity in the general
organizations (IOs). Although international NGOs
behavior of states.
are sometimes considered as IOs , the term is
→ The fact that states in an international order
commonly used to refer to international
continue to adhere to certain global norms means that
intergovernmental organizations or groups that are
there is a semblance of world order despite the lack
primarily made up of member-states.
of a single world government.
→ One major fallacy about international organizations
Global Governance is that they are merely amalgamations of various state
interest.
→ Refers to the various intersecting processes that
→ In the 1960s and 1970s, many scholars believed that
create global order.
IOs were the contradicting but sometimes
→ It is broadly used to designate all regulations intended
intersecting, agendas of countries were discussed- no
for organization and centralization of human societies
more than talk shops. What has become more evident
on a global scale.
 in recent years, however, is that IOs can take on
lives of their own.
→ EX: IMF was able to promote a particular form of
economic orthodoxy that stemmed mainly from the
beliefs of its professional economists. IOs can thus
become influential as independent organizations.
International relations scholars Michael N. Barnett
and Martha Finnemore listed the following powers of
IOs.
1. First, IOs have the power of classification.
• Because IOs can invent and apply categories,
they create powerful global standards.
• For example, it is the UN High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) that defines what a refugee
is (see Lesson 10 for more). And since states are
required to accept refugees entering their
borders, this power to establish identity has
concrete effects.
2. Second, IOs have the power to fix meanings.
• This is a broader function related to the first.
Various terms like “security” or “development”
need to be well-defined.
• States, organizations, and individuals view IO as
legitimate sources of information. As such, the
meanings they create have effects on various
policies.
• For example, recently, the United Nations has
started to define security as not just safety from
military violence, but also safety from
environmental harm.
3. Finally, IOs have the power to diffuse norms.
• Norms are accepted codes of conduct that may not
be strict law, but nevertheless produce regularity in
behaviour.
• IOs do not only classify and fix meanings; they
also spread their ideas across the world, thereby
establishing global standards.
• Their members are, as Barnett and Finnemore
emphasized, the “missionaries” of our time.
• Their power to diffuse norms stems from the fact that
IOs are staffed with independent bureaucracies, who
are considered experts in various fields.
• For example, World Bank economists come form
of authority. They can, therefore, create norms
regarding the implementation and conceptualization
of development projects.
Because of these immense powers, IOs can be
sources of great good and great harm.
Ø They can promote relevant norms like
environmental protection and human rights.
Ø But, like other entrenched bureaucracies, they
can become sealed-off communities that fall to
challenge their beliefs.
Ø For example, Joseph Stiglitz (Noble Prize-
winning economist) criticized the IMF “one-size-
fits-all” approach when its economists made
recommendations to developing countries.
THE UNITED NATIONS
Having examined the powers, limitations, and
weaknesses of IOs, the spotlight will now fall on the most
prominent IO in the contemporary world, the United
Nations (UN)
→ After the collapse of the League of Nations at the
end of World War II, countries that worried about
another world war began to push for the formation of
a more lasting international league.
→ The result was the creation of the UN.
→ Although the organization is far from perfect, it should
be emphasized that it has so far achieved its primary
goal of averting another global war.
→ For this reason alone, the UN should be considered a
success.
The UN is divided into five active organs. methods of adjustment or terms of
settlement.
1.The General Assembly (GA)
• In some case, it can resort to imposing sanctions
• UN’s “main deliberative policymaking and or even authorizing the use of force to maintain
representative organ.” or restore international peace and security.
• According to the UN charter: “Decisions on • Because of these powers, states that seek to
important questions, such as those on peace and intervene militarily in another state need to obtain
security, admission of new members, and the approval of the Sc.
budgetary matters, require a two-thirds • With the SC’s approval, a military intervention
majority of the General Assembly. Decisions on may be deemed legal. This is an A IMMENSE
other questions are done by simple majority. POWER.
Annually, the General Assembly elects a GA • Much attention has been placed on the SC’s P5
President to serve a one-year term of office.” due to their permanent seats and because each
• All member states (currently 193) have seats in country holds veto power over the council’s
the GA. decisions.
• The Philippines played a prominent role in the • It only takes one veto vote from a P5 member
GA’s early years when Filipino diplomat Carlos to stop an Sc action dead in its tracks. In this
P. Romulo was elected GA president from 1949- sense, the SC is heir to the tradition of “great
1950. power” diplomacy that began with the
• Although the GA is the most representative Metternich /Concert of Europe system (see the
organization in the UN. previous lesson).
• It is especially telling that the P5 consists of the
2. The Security Council (SC)
major Allied Powers that won World War II. The
• many commentators consider the Security Security Council will be further discussed in the
Council (SC) to be the most powerful. next section.
• According to the UN, this body consists of 15
member states. 3.Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
• The GA elects ten of these 15 to two-year terms. • which is “the principal body for coordination,
• The other five---sometimes referred to as the policy review, policy dialogue, and
Permanent 5 (P5) ---are China, France, Russia, recommendations on social and environmental
the United Kingdom, and the United States. issues, as well as the implementation of
These states have been permanent members internationally agreed development goals.”
since the founding of the UN and cannot be • 54 members elected for three-year terms.
replaced through election. • Currently, it is UN’s central platform for
• The SC takes the lead in determining the discussions on sustainable development.
existence of a threat to the peace or an act of
aggression. 4. International Court of Justice
• It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle the
act of aggression. • whose task “is to settle, in accordance with
• It calls upon the parties to a dispute to settle the international law, legal disputes submitted to it by
act by peaceful means and recommends states and to give advisory opinions referred to it
 by authorized United Nations organs and
specialized agencies.” programs
• The major cases of the court consist of disputes sovereignty
between states that voluntarily submit
themselves to the court for arbitration.
• The court, as such, cannot try individuals
(international criminal cases are heard by the
International Criminal Court, which is
independent of the UN), and its decisions are only
binding when states have explicitly agreed to
place themselves before the court’s authority.
• The SC may enforce the rulings of the ICJ, but
this remains subject to the P%’s veto power.
Localizing the Material
Did you know that Filipinos played a significant role in
the creation of human rights arbitration rules in the
United Nations?
2. issues on security.
In the late 1960s, the diplomat Salvador P. Lopez was
chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights. Lopez and other Filipinos helped design the
system whereby any citizen of any state may petition
the UN to look into human rights violations in a country.
That system exists until today. Human rights, therefore,
are not foreign impositions. They are part of our
national heritage.
5. The secretariat
• consists of the “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 General Assembly and the
organization’s other principal organs.”
• As such, it is the bureaucracy of the UN, serving
as a kind of international civil service.
• Members of the secretariat serve in their capacity
as UN employees and NOT AS STATE
REPRESENTATIVES
CHALLENGES OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Given the scope of the scope UN’s activities, it
naturally faces numerous challenges.
1. limits placed upon its various organs and
by the need to respect state
• The UN is not a world government, and it
functions primarily because of voluntary
cooperation from states. If states refuse to
cooperate, the influence of the UN can be
severely circumscribed.
• For example, the UN Council on Human
Rights can send special rapporteurs to
countries where alleged human rights
violations are occurring. If a country does not
invite the rapporteur or places conditions on
his/her activities, however, this information-
gathering mechanism usually fails to achieve
its goals
• biggest challenge of the United Nations
• As mentioned, the UN Security Council is
tasked with authorizing international acts of
military intervention.
• Because of the P5's veto power, it is tough
for the council to release a formal resolution,
much more implement it. This became an
issue,
• for example, in the late 1990 when the
United States sought to intervene in the
Kosovo war.
• Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic was
committing acts of ethnic cleansing against
ethnic Muslim Albanians were victims of
massacres, mass deportations, and internal
displacement. Amid this systematic terror,
members of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO, see Lesson 5), led by
the United States, sought SC authorization
to intervene in the Kosovo war on
humanitarian grounds. China and Russia,
however, threatened to veto any action,
 rendering the UN incapable of addressing the → Global governance is such a complex issue that one
crisis. can actually teach an entire course in itself.
→ In response, NATO decided to intervene on its own. → This lesson has focused on the IOs and the United
Though the NATO invention was largely a success, Nations in particular.
it, nevertheless, left the UN ineffectual. → International organizations are highlighted because
they are the most visible symbols of global
governance.
→ Today, a similar dynamic is evident in Syria, which is → The UN, in particular, is the closest to a world
undergoing a civil war. government.
→ Russia has threatened to veto any SC resolution → What is important to remember is those international
against Syria. institutions like the UN are always in a precarious
→ thus, the UN has done very little to stop state position. On the one hand, they are groups of
sanctioned violence against opponents of the sovereign states. On the other, they are
government. organizations with their own rationalities and
→ Since Syrian President Basher al Assad is an ally agendas. It is this tension that will continue to inform
of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the latter has the evolution of these organizations.
shied away from any policy that could weaken the → However, note that there are many institutions,
legitimacy of the former. groups, and ideas that hold international and global
→ As a result, the UN is again ineffectual as amid a politics together. In your own time, you may want to
conflict that has led to over 220,000 people dead and explore these topics on your own.
11 million displaced.

→ Despite these problems, it remains important for the

SC to place a high bar on military intervention.
→ The UN Security Council has been wrong on issues
of intervention, but it has also made right decisions.
When the United States sought to invade Iraq in 2001,
it claimed that Iraq’s Saddam Hussien had weapons
of mass destruction (WMD) that threatened the world.
→ However, UN members Russia, China, and France
were unconvinced and vetoed the UN resolution for
intervention, forcing the United States to lead small
“coalition of the willing” with its Allies.
→ It has since been discovered that there were no
weapons of mass destruction, and the invasion of Iraq
has caused problems for the country and the region
that last until today

CONCLUSION