THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Session 2

NEWS REPORT CRITIQUE

Write a 50-word summary of the given article below identifying
what the underlying definitions of globalization the op-ed writer use.

OPINION - Globalization at a crossroads with COVID-19

In the post-pandemic world, we may see a relative concentration of production to specific locations and
nation states gaining more power as opposed to multinational organizations and corporations
Metin Basbay |
05.05.2020
The writer is a Researcher at TRT World
ISTANBUL

Today global supply chains are so central to the world economy that it feels like this has always been the
case.

Actually, in many ways, globalization is a phenomenon of the post-1980 world, and even the term itself
became popular only in the 1990s. It has transformed our world at a very high speed and until recently
felt like it was here to stay forever. COVID-19, however, may change that.

The challenge is not temporary travel restrictions or social distancing protocols but rather the realization
that comes with it. The outbreak has showed policymakers and businesses how fragile the just-in-time
delivery system of the global economy is, and how dependent national economies are on such a fragile
mechanism.

The world economy is so intertwined and countries so interdependent, the breaking of one single link in
the chain is apparently enough to cause all hell to break loose.
When China was first hit by the COVID-19, two-thirds of the entire Chinese economy was shut down,
which, in weeks, led to a supply shortage across the globe. Now, China seems to have passed at least the
first wave of the outbreak, but this time industrialized countries of the West are at the peak of it and there
is a global demand shortage. Even if separate countries can contain the outbreak, they need to wait for the
global economy to recover so their economies can operate normally again. Until the automobile
production in Europe goes back to normal, car parts will continue to accumulate in warehouses in Turkey,
for instance.

According to famous sociologist Anthony Giddens, this is actually the defining characteristic of
globalization in the first place, that it “links distant localities in such a way that local happenings are
shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa.” Indeed, several months after Chinese
authorities failed to properly handle a local health emergency in a peripheral part of China, the entire
global economy is fast moving towards a major recession, leaving a steadily growing number of people
unemployed across the globe, from Latin America to the Middle East.

Two decades ago, China had a similar (SARS) outbreak, but it did not lead to such consequences, because
the world was not this interconnected then and China, and East Asia in general, were not the gigantic
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players they are now in regards to global supply chains. Today, China alone accounts for 20% of global
manufacturing.

But this is not because there are more Chinese firms involved in international trade but because global
companies shifted some parts of their production lines to China. It is because of globalization.
This is the difference between good old international trade and globalization. With globalization,
multinational firms spread their production lines across the globe, taking advantage of cheap labor and
lower taxes, wherever they found them. Ford cars are produced in Detroit no more, and it is in fact
impossible now to specify a locality for the process, which is very complex and dynamic, requiring a
combination of sophisticated management and high-tech logistics.

Now policymakers and businesses are questioning if the risks of globalized production outweigh its
benefits. Surely, globalization reduces costs, which makes products affordable for more people, not to
mention -of course- that it allows companies to make tremendous profits unheard-of before.

However, everything falls apart literally because someone in rural China decided to eat the wrong food.
And, this does not need to happen due to a once-in-a-life-time virus pandemic. Even before the current
crisis, there were discussions about the future of globalization due to the ongoing trade dispute between
China and the US. Globalization obviously assumes a cooperative, or at least peaceful, international
political order. It seems that the delicate political balance between countries is also quite vulnerable to
shocks of various kinds.

This is another revelation of the pandemic. The nation-state reflexes are alive and well, and they easily
reactivate in case of an emergency. Facing COVID-19, most governments failed to cooperate with others,
and, instead, chose to follow the ‘everyone for themselves’ mentality. The political fallout of the
pandemic has been quite dramatic.

The blame game between China and the US continues. Washington blames China for causing the
pandemic in the first place while China blames the US for turning a health crisis into a political one.

The pandemic seems to exacerbate the tensions between two global powers, which can culminate in a
brake-down of globalization.
Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO), which is supposed to be the basis of international
cooperation in such times of crisis, became a source of dispute. Many blame the organization for covering
up Beijing’s initial mishandling of the outbreak and failing to implement a strong response in the early
days in par with the potential danger. More recently, the US has even withdrawn funding from the
organization.

Meanwhile, countries’ fight over world’s limited supply of critical personal protection equipment (PPE)
continues. Many countries banned exports of face masks and ventilators, which led to confrontations
between governments. President Trump, for instance, used his powers from the Defense Production Act to
ban strategic exports, which stopped the shipment of masks to Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau was very explicit about his discontent. Similarly, India, a strategic supplier of pharmaceuticals,
banned the export of a number of critical medicines.

Even the EU, which was long seen as the bastion of international cooperation, failed to synchronize
government efforts to fight the pandemic. Both Germany and France banned exports of face masks to
other member states. When Italy was hit hard by the disease, most member states did not hesitate to close
their borders with the country. Moreover, at the initial stage, none of the 26 member states came to Italy’s
help.
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While some Italians expressed their anger by burning the EU flag online, President of the EU
Commission Ursula von der Leyen, had to apologize to the Italians for the EU’s failure to help Italy. In
Spain, one of the worst affected countries in Europe, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wrote an article to
warn that Europe faces an existential threat and unless there is cooperation, the “union fails”.

Now, citizens are questioning why some of the richest countries in the world are not capable of
manufacturing life-saving ventilators or even face masks while countries like China and Turkey are
distributing them to other countries in aid. Globalization is easy to blame.

“What is the use of free trade, if it does not function when needed the most?” many are asking.
All in all, it is fair to say that COVID-19 poses a challenge to globalization as we know it. In the post-
pandemic world, we may see a relative concentration of production to specific locations and nation-states
gaining more power as opposed to multinational organizations and corporations.

Ironically, a pandemic, which is by definition a global phenomenon, is enforcing a retreat from

globalization.

Source: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/opinion-globalization-at-a-crossroads-with-covid-19/1829669

SUMMARY:
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