The Contemporary World 2020

UNIT III THE WORLD OF REGIONS

Coverage: Weeks 6, 7 and 8

Duration: 9 hours

Global Divides: The North and the South (4.5 hours; week 6 and 7)

Asian Regionalism (4.5 hours; week 7 and 8)

Learning Objectives: After studying the unit, the students should be able to:

 define the term Global South

 differentiate the Global South from the Third World
 Differentiate regionalization from globalization
 Identify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian Region

1. Global Divides: The North and the South (focus: Latin America)
2. Asian Regionalism

Global Divides: The North and the South (focus: Latin America)
Global South refers to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania
mostly low- income and often politically or culturally marginalized. It may also be called
the "developing World" such as Africa, Latin America, and the developing countries in
Asia, "developing countries," "less developed countries," and "less developed regions”
(122)
including poorer "southern" regions of wealthy "northern" countries (123).
In general, Global South refers to these countries' "interconnected histories
of colonialism, neo-imperialism, and differential economic and social change through
which large inequalities in living standards, life expectancy, and access to resources are
maintained (124). Contemporary critics of neo-liberal globalization use the global south as
a banner to rally countries victimized by the violent economic cures of institutions like
the International Monetary Fund.

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Three Primary Concepts of Global South

1. It refers to economically disadvantaged nation-states and as a post-cold war
alternative to “Third World”.

Third World" is a phrase frequently used to describe a developing nation. The

phrase "Third World" arose during the Cold War to identify countries whose views did
not align with NATO and capitalism or the Soviet Union and communism. The First
World described countries whose views aligned with NATO and capitalism, and the
Second World referred to countries that supported communism and the Soviet Union
(125a)
.
Third World countries are largely characterized as poor and underdeveloped. In
these countries, low levels of education, poor infrastructure, improper sanitation and
poor access to health care mean living conditions are seen as inferior to those in the
world's more developed nations. As a result, the terms Third World country and
developing nation have become increasingly interchangeable in recent decades (126b).

2. The Global South captures a deterritorialized geography of capitalism’s externalities

and means to account for subjugated peoples within the borders of wealthier
countries, such that there are economic Souths in the geographic North and Norths
in the geographic South.

3. It refers to the resistant imaginary of a transnational political subject that results

from a shared experience of subjugation under contemporary global capitalism.

The global South is not a directional designation or a point due south from a fixed
north. It is a symbolic designation meant to capture the semblance of cohesion that
emerged when former colonial entities engaged in political projects of decolonization
and moved toward the realization of a post- colonial international order (126).
The process of globalization places into question geographically bound
conceptions of poverty and inequality. The increase and intensification of global flows
spread both poverty and affluence. Spaces of underdevelopment in developed countries
may mirror the poverty of the global south, and spaces of affluence mirror those of the
global north (127).
The strongest vehicle for social redistribution and the main mechanism for social
transfer is the state. The redistributative function of the state becomes crucial in the
context of economic globalization where the goal of neo-liberal economists and
institutions is precisely to dismantle local state oversight (128).

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The development of the global south must begin by drawing most of the country’s
financial resources for development from within rather than becoming dependent on
foreign investments and foreign financial markets (129).
The global south is not relevant for those who live in countries traditionally
associated with it but also signifies that the south continues to be globalized. It also
represents emergent forms of progressive cosmopolitanism. It is an always emergent
and provisional internationalism.

New Internationalism in the Global South

The ills of the global south are being globalized. Underdeveloped states of the
global south are ravaged by merciless IMF policies in the 1980’s. The economic
prescriptions of the IMF as cures are recommended for countries in the global south.
Other countries like Greece realize the similarity of problems in the global south that
inspirations were drawn from poorer nations. The global south has provided model of
resistance for the world like Gandhi’s non-violence that initially directed at colonial
authority in India is now part of global protest culture, as well as benefits of critiques of
international financial institutions from the experiences and writings of intellectuals and
activists from the global south.
A similar globalization of the south’s concern is arising from the issue about
global environment. Amidst the existential threat of climate change the most radical
notions of climate justice are being articulated in the global south. As global problems
increase, it is necessary for people in the north to support people from the south.
As a symbol and metaphor, global south is not only relevant for those who live in
countries traditionally associated with it. The global in global south does not only mean
that the south is the globe but also signifies that the south continues to be globalized.
The global south while embedded in specific geographic imaginaries, represents
emergent forms of progressive cosmopolitanism. It is always emergent and provisional
internationalism.

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Asian Regionalism
Regionalism refers to the decentralization of political powers or competencies
from a higher towards a lower political level. More specifically, it distinguishes between
top-down from bottom up regionalism where top - down regionalism describes the
decentralization of competencies or the establishment of regional institutions by the
state while bottom -up includes all patterns of endeavors toward political
decentralization from within the particular region (130).
Globalization is the intensification of economic, political, social, and cultural
relations across borders and a consciousness of that intensification, with a concomitant
diminution in the significance of territorial boundaries (131).

Views of Globalization in the Asia Pacific and South Asia

Globalization is an external phenomenon being pushed into the region by world
powers particularly the United States and Europe. From this perspective, globalization
can be understood as a process that transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia. It is a
force for good bringing economic development, political progress, and social and
cultural diversity to the region.
The Asia Pacific and South Asia refer together to the regions of East (or
Northeast) Asia, South Asia, the Pacific Islands, and South Asia. It includes some of the
world’s most economically developed states such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore,
and Taiwan, and highly impoverished countries such as Cambodia, Laos, and Nepal. It
also includes the largest and most populous states on the globe including China and
India and some of the world’s smallest such as the Maldives and Bhutan (132).
The Asia and South Pacific has emerged over the past decade as a new political
force in the world. The economies of Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam and Pakistan
have strategic relevance in today’s global system. They are the focused of global
powers outside of the region. A foreign policy shift called “Pacific Pivot” was
implemented by the United States to commit more resources and attention to the region.
This shift which is also called “Atlantic Century” was termed “Pacific Century” by US
Secretary of States Hilary Clinton. He stated that the Asia Pacific has become a key
driver of global politics. It is the home to several key allies and important emerging
powers like China, India, and Indonesia.
Globalization in the Asia Pacific and South Asia is an external phenomenon
being pushed into the region by world powers like US and Europe. Globalization in this
context is a process that transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia. It can be viewed
as a force for good, bringing economic development, political progress, and social and
cultural diversity.

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Asia Pacific and South Asia’s Impact on Globalization

Asia was the central global force in the early modern world economy. It was the
site of the most important trade routes and in some places more advanced in
technology than West such as science and medicine. Colonies in the Asia pacific and
South Asia influenced the West and vice versa. They were often “laboratories of
modernity” (133). Colonialism was not simply a practice of Western Domination but a
product of what one thinks of as Western and modern.

1. Japan embarked on procuring raw materials like coal and iron at unprecedented
economies of scale allowing them to gain a competitive edge in the global manufacturing market
as well as globalized shipping and procurement patterns which other countries modeled (134).
2. China pursues similar pattern of development at present and is now the world’s largest
importers of basic raw materials such as iron and surpassed Japan, the US and Europe in steel
production. It also surpassed the World bank in lending to developing countries. It had an
enormous impact on the availability and consumption of goods around the world (135). This simple
scale of China’s development is shaping and furthering globalization.
3. India opened -up and emphasized an export-oriented strategy. Textiles and other low
wage sectors have been a key part of the economy with highly successful software development
exports. It also plays a key role in global service provisions as trends in outsourcing and off-
shoring increase (136).
4. India and China have also become a major source of international migrant labor, which
is also one of the fundamental characteristics of the era of globalization. This includes the
migration of highly skilled labor into the high- tech industry based in Silicon Valley. India, China
and the Philippines were three of the top four recipient states of migrant remittances.
5. The trend of the rising regional free arrangements in the Asia Pacific and South Asia.
This kind of regionalism would mean as bulwark to globalization or as compatible and even
pushing forward the process of global economic integration. Regionalism can promote learning,
assuage domestic audiences to the benefits of free trade, and form the institutional framework to
scale up from regional cooperation o global cooperation (137). Regionalism can act as springboard
for globalization.
One distinguishing feature of regional institutions in Asia Pacific and South Asia is the
adoption of “Open Regionalism” which aims to develop and maintain cooperation with outside
actors. This is meant to resolve the tension between the rise of regional trade agreements and
the push for global trade as embodied by World Trade Organization (WTO) (138), the only global
international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations (139).
“Open” refers to the principle of non-discrimination, more specifically an openness in
membership and openness in terms of economic flows (140). Open regionalism is embodied by
Asia Pacific Economic cooperation or APEC.
6. In culture and globalization in the region, the source of a wide variety of cultural
phenomena that have spread outward to the West and the rest of the world is the region.
Examples include “hello Kitty” created in Japan including Anime, Pokemon, Power Rangers
which become regional and global phenomenon; the regional and global rise of Korean popular
culture called ‘K-Wave” comprising of Korean dramas, music (K-pop) and the smash hit
“Gangnam Style” of Korean pop star PSY.
Asia Pacific and South Asia are on the receiving end of globalization. The region serves
as the source of many aspects of globalization process which can be seen in history, economy,
political structure and culture.
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The Region-Making in Southeast Asia and Middle-Class Formation:

The Third Wave
Regionalization entails complex and dynamic interactions between and among
governmental and nongovernmental actors which resulted to hybrid East Asia. The
main engines of hybridization are explained by the successive waves of regional
economic development that is powered by developmental states and national and
transnational capitalism that nurtured sizeable middle-classes that share a lot in
common in terms of professional lives and their lifestyles, in fashion, leisure, and
entertainment, in their aspirations and dreams. The middle-class occupies different
positions in their respective societies as well as in relation to their nation-states as they
constitute the expanding regional consumer market (141).
The product of regional economic development in the post war era are the middle
classes in east Asia. Regional economic development took place within the context of
the American informal empire in “Free Asia”, with the US-led regional security system
and the triangular trade system as its two major pillars. Furthermore, the national states
in the region promoted it actively under democratic or authoritarian developmentalist
regimes, both of which espoused the politics of productivity, a politics of that
transformed political issues into problems of output and sought to neutralize class
conflict in favor of a consensus on economic growth (142).
The first wave of regional economic development took place in japan from mid-
1950’s to the early 1970s and led to the emergence of a middle-class by the early
1970s. The second wave took place between the 1960s and 1980s in South Korea,
Taiwan, Hongkong and Singapore and led to the formation of middle -class societies in
these countries by the 1980s.

Two salient points in the history of east Asian middle-class formation.

1. Middle class formation in Southeast Asia was driven by global and regional
transnational capitalism working in alliance with national states while middle class in
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were created by developmental states and national
capitalism.
2. New urban middle classes in East Asia, whether in Japan, South Korea,
Taiwan, or Southeast Asia, with their middle-class jobs, education, and income, have in
turn created their own new lifestyles commensurate with their middle-class income and
status.

Middle Classes in The Philippines

New urban middle classes emerged in the post 1986 Philippines. They were
created through growth in retail trade, manufacture, banking, real estate development,
and an expanding range of specialist services such as accounting, advertising,
computing, and market research. Fostered by government policies of liberalization and
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deregulation, the development of these new enterprises has been oriented both toward
the export and domestic markets and has entailed increasingly diverse sources of
foreign investment and variable subcontracting, franchise, and service relationships,
with a noticeable expansion of ties connecting the Philippines to other countries in
East and Southeast Asia.

Regional Implications of Middle -Class Formation in East Asia

Complex historical forces shaped new urban middle classes. They are product of
regional economic development, which has taken place in waves under the U.S.
informal empire over a half century, first in Japan, then in South Korea, Taiwan,
Hongkong, and Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines, and now in
China. They are product as well for development states. Their lifestyles have been
shaped in very complex ways by their appropriation of things American, Japanese,
Chinese, South Korean, Islamic and other ways of life, often mediated by the market.
The political consequences of the rise of East Asia middle classes vary. The
cultural and political hegemony of the South Korean middle classes is embodied by
single generation, while that of the Taiwanese middle classes manifest itself in the
political assertiveness of an ethnic majority. Southeast Asian middle classes also
exemplify the diversity and complexity of class formation. Thai middle classes are
coherent socially, hegemonic culturally, and ascend politically; their counterparts in
Malaysia and Indonesia are socially divided, dependent on the state, politically assertive
and vulnerable; and the Philippine middle classes are socially coherent, less dependent
on the state, culturally ascendant, but politically vacillating.

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References:
Global Divides: The North and the South (focus: Latin America)

122. Mitlin, D., Satterthwaite, D. (2013). Urban Poverty in the Global South: Scale and nature. Routledge.
ISBN 9780415624664.

123. Braveboy-Wagner, J.A. (2003). The foreign Policies of the Global South: Rethinking Conceptual
Frameworks. Lynne Rienner Publishers.ISBN 9781588261755.

124. Dados, N. And Connell, R. 2012. The Global South. Contexts, Vol.11, No.1.ISSN 1536-5042.
American Sociological Association. Retrieved from: http:// contexts.sagepub. com DOI 10.1177/
15365042124 36479.

125.(a,b) Investopedia.com Website. Third World. Retrieved from: www. investopedia. com. / terms /third-
world. Asp# ixzz5TbHF Kexe

126. Grovogui,S. (2011). A Revolution Nonetheless: The Global South in International Relations. The
Global South 591:175-190.

127. Claudio, Lisandro. Locating the Global South. The Sage Handbook of Globalization. Vol. I.
128. Hobsbawm, E.J. (1996). The Future of the state: development and Change. 27(2) : 267-268.
129. Bello, W.F. (2006). Deglobalization. Ideas for a New World Economy. Philippine edn. Quezon City;
Ateneo De manila University Press.

REFERENCES
Asian Regionalism

130. Michael Keating, (1995). "Europeanism and Regionalism", in Barry Jones and Michael Keating
(eds.), The European Union and the Regions. Oxford.
131. Bretherton, Charlotte. (1996). “Introduction: Global Politics in the 1990s” in Charlotte Bretherton and
Geoffrey Ponton, eds., Global Politics: An Introduction (Cambridge, MA: Blackwell), 1–19.

132. Kimura, E. Globalization and the Asia Pacific and South Asia. The Sage Handbook of Globalization.
Vol 1.

133. Stoler, Al (ed).(2006). Haunted by Empire geographies of Intimacy in North American History,
Durham: Duke University Press Books.

134. Bunker, S.G. (2007). East Asia and the Global Economy: Japan’s Assent with Implications to
China’s Future. John Hopkin’s studies in Globalization. Baltimore. John Hopkin’s University
Press.

135. Nolan, P. 2004. Transforming China: Globalization, Transition and Development. London, Anthem
Press.
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136. Dossani and Kenny. (2007). The Next wave of Globalization: Relocating Service Provision to India
World Development.

137. Lee, J.W. and Park, I. (2005). Free Trade Areas in East Asia: Discriminatory or Non-Discriminatory?
The World Economy.

138. Bergsten, C.F. 1997. Open Regionalism. The World Economy.

139.What is the WTO? Retrieved from: https:// www.wto. org/english / the wto_e/ what is_e/
whatis_e.htm

140. Sutton, M. (2007). Open Regionalism and the Asia Pacific: Implications for the Rise of the East
Asian Economic Community. Ritsumeikan International Affairs.

141. Shiraishi, Takashi, (2006). “The Third Wave: Southeast Asia and the Middle-Class Formation in the
Making of a Region. Ed. Peter Katzenstein and Takashi Shiraishi. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press.

142. Maier, C. S. (1978). The politics of productivity: Foundations of American international economic
policy after world war II. In P. J. Katzenstein (Ed.), Between power and plenty: Foreign
economic policies of advanced industrial states. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.