Contemporary World

It is important because of the advent of technology which is a factor that affects social interaction.

Why should we study the world?

 The world is abstract.

Relevance of this course

 Studying the outside world is a cure to parochialism or an outlook that is limited to one’s
immediate community.
 It is important to study the world because it can teach you more about yourself and knowing other
countries teaches you to compare your country with others.
 You need to study the world because you will be interacting with it.

By teaching about the world, this course aims to stretch the student’s limit and outlook.

Globalization

 interdependence of the world economies, cultures, and populations brought about by cross border
trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people and investment.

Global flow

 these are creating new degrees of connectedness among economies and playing an ever-larger
role in determining the fate or destiny of one’s nation, companies and individual.

Factors affecting the economic process:

Newspaper – report than nationalists are resisting globalization is usually refers to the integration
of national markets in a wider global market signified by the increase in free trade.
Activist – refers to the anti-globalization movement in the 1990. They mean resisting the trade
deals among countries.
Academics – defer from the journalist and activist. They see globalization in a much broader
term. According to Manfred Steger who described the process of globalization as the expansion
and intensification, social relations and consciousness across world-time and across world space.
 Expansion refers to both the creation of the new social networks and the multiplication a of
existing connections that cut across traditional, political, cultural, and geographic boundaries.
Example is the establishment of new global connection between people, and the advancement of
technology and social media.
Intensification – refers to the expansion, stretching, acceleration of these networks such as social
media and international groups of NGOs.

Multiple globalization: Scapes

1. Ethnoscape – refers to the shifting landscape of people across culture and borders such as:
tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, and guest workers.
2. Mediascape – refers to the electronic capabilities of production and dissemination of information
through media.
3. Technoscape – are the transmission of cultures through the flow of technology. Also refers to the
circulation of mechanical goods and software.
4. Financescape – refers to the global movement or circulation of money including currency, trade,
and commodity.
5. Ideoscape - realm where political ideas move around. Also refers to the global flow of ideology.

Benefits derived from globalization

1. Access to new cultures – (music, food, sports)

2. The spread of technology and innovation
3. It lowers costs for products
4. Higher standards of living across the globe – family car as a status symbol, aircon
5. Access to new markets – (Lazada, Shopee)
6. Access to new talents
7. International recruiting
8. Managing employee immigration

Examples of Globalization

 Economic globalization – Development of trade system within transactional actors such as

corporation or NGOs.
 Financial globalization – Affects other markets and refers to the trades
  Cultural globalization – Interdependence of culture. Refers to the sharing of ideas, meanings,
hobbies and values around the world in such a way as to extend and intensify social relations.
 Political globalization - Refers to the growth of the worldwide political system, both in size and
complexity.
 Sociological globalization – Information moves and interdependence of events
 Technological globalization – Related to technology interconnecting power of the digital world
 Geographic globalization – Hierarchy of the different regions of the world that is constantly
changing
 Ecological globalization – Idea of considering planet earth as a global entity.

Negative effects of Globalization:

 Ecological aspects – refers to environment such as climate change

International trading system

- The oldest known international trade road was the Silk Road. A network of pathways in the
ancient world that span from China and what is now the Middle East and is now called Europe.
The Silk Road earned its name from Chinese silk, a highly valued commodity that merchants
transported along these trade networks.

Galleon Trade

- Connected Manila and Acapulco, Mexico. The first time where Americas were directly connected
to Asian trading routes.

Breton-Woods System

- The Bretton Woods Agreement and System created a collective international currency exchange
regime that lasted from the mid-1940s to the early 1970s. The Bretton Woods System required a
currency peg to the U.S. dollar which was in turn pegged to the price of gold.
- It established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the US, Canada, Western
European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Breton-Woods Agreement. Breton-
Woods was a place where they had the meeting.
- This controlled the value of money between different countries.
5 key elements of the Breton-Woods System:

1. It is the expression of currency in terms of gold or gold value to establish a par value.
2. The official monetary authority in each country would agree to exchange its own currency for
those of other countries at the established exchange - rate plus or minus one percent margin—in
terms of gold.
3. The establishment of an overseer help the establishment for those exchange rates. (The
International Monetary Fund monitored exchange rates and helped countries whose currency
threatened to fall lower in real value than its official exchange rate. It was used to help support
currency and keep the official value and real value of currency in line.)
4. Eliminates restrictions on the currencies of members in the international trade.
5. The US dollar became the global currency.

Replacing the Gold Standard (Changes in the Breton-Woods System)

After Bretton Woods, each member agreed to redeem its currency for U.S. dollars, not gold. The dollar
had now become a substitute for gold. As a result, the value of the dollar began to increase relative to
other currencies.

Global politics

 Is the distribution and utilization of power and resources on a world-wide basis.

 The history of global politics will illuminate the patterns and processes that have shape our
societies over time.

4 Key Attributes of today’s global system:

1. There are countries or states that are independent and govern themselves.
2. These countries interact with each other through diplomacy.
3. There are international organization like the UN that facilitate their interactions.
 4. Beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, international organizations also take on lives
of their own.

Origins of this system:

 Nation-state is one where the great majority are conscious of a common identity and share the
same culture, but is composed of two non-interchangeable terms. Not all states are nation and
not all nations are states.

4 Attributes of State:

“State refers to a country and its government.”

1. The state exercises authority over a specific population called the citizens.
2. The state governs a specific territory.
3. The state has a structure of government that crops various rules that people or society follows.
4. The state has sovereignty over its territory.

Benedict Anderson

He stated that, a nation is an “imagined community”.

Other definitions:

A nation is limited because it does not go beyond the boundary, and rights and responsibilities are a
privilege.

Interstate System:

The concept of sovereignty can be traced back to the Treaty of Westphalia which was a set of
agreements signed in 1648. Taken 30 years: war between the major continental wars of Europe.
The Westphalia system provided stability for the nations of Europe until faced by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoleon’s principle are liberty, equality, and fraternity and also challenged the King’s nobility and
religion in Europe. The Napoleonic wars lasted from 1803 to 1815 with Napoleon and his armies
marching all over much of Europe. This system shocked monarchies.

Hereditary elites – group of persons by virtue of the position or education who exercise much power or
influence.

Anglo and Prussian Armies – Armies that defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Ending
the latter’s mission to spread across Europe. (12 years of reign of Napoleon).

To prevent war, the royal powers created a new system that in effect the Westphalia system. The concert
of Europe was an alliance of great powers comprised of: The United Kingdom, Austria, Russia,
Prussia

Function of the Great Alliance:

The mission of this Great Alliance is to restore the world of monarchical hereditary and religious
privileges of the time before the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

Internationalism:

 A system of heightened interaction between various sovereign states particularly the desire for
greater cooperation and unity among states and people.

2 categories of Internationalism:
Liberal Internationalism – first major thinker of liberal internationalism was the late 18 th
century German philosopher, Emmanuel Kant. It is a cluster of ideas derived from the belief that
international progress is possible where progress is defined as movement towards increasing level
of harmonious cooperation between political communities.

Socialist Internationalism – It is possible to build a better world based upon the twin goals of
equality and social justice. Nations should work together to create a more peaceful world and
finally bring an end to capitalize exploitation. A person of Karl Marx was communism’s most
zealous intellectual advocate of communism. His comprehensive writing on the subject lead the
foundation for later political leaders notably, Lenin and Mao Chittum, to impart communism in
more than 20 countries. Marx and his co-author, Fredrick Engels, believe that the socialist
 revolution was seeking to overthrow state and the economy. The socialist international during this
time was a union of a European socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889 and
collapsed during the World War I. In the Russian revolution, Nicholas Caesar II was overthrown
and was replaced by the Bolshevik party and leader, Vladimir Lenin. The communist
international committee was established by Lenin and served as the central body all over the
world. Communist Information Bureau was established by Joseph Stalin. He helped direct the
various communist party that had taken power in Eastern Europe.

Global governance

 It is a movement towards political cooperation among transitional actors aimed at negotiating

responses to problems that affect more than one state or region.

Sources of global governance:

1. States

Function: The state signs treaties and form organization in the process of legislating public
international law that govern interaction between states as opposed to say private companies.

2. International non- governmental organization (INGo)

Function: This has the power to lobby individual states to behave in a certain way.

3. Powerful transnational corporation

Function: Concerns about the tremendous effect on global labor laws, environmental legislation
trade, policies, and etc.

International organization

 Is an organization with an international membership. Example: Bank for international

settlements, European central bank, food and agricultural organization.

Roles of IO:

 Helping to shape the international agenda, mediating political bargaining, providing a place for
political initiatives, and acting as catalyst for coalition formation.
 It defines the salient issues and decide which issues can be grouped.
Purpose of IO:

 Promoting peace, fighting disease, building schools, and improving health care.
 It also provides its member countries with a place where they can present their own point of view.

Two main types of IO:

International Non-Governmental Organization (INGOs)

 A type of non-governmental organization that is international ins scope and has outposts around
the world and deals with specific issues in many countries.

Intergovernmental Organization

 This is composed primarily of sovereign states and other international organization they also
include International government organization or non-profit organization or multinational
organization.

Powers of International Organization:

1. Power of classification

- Can invent and apply categories to create powerful global standards.

2. Power to fix meanings

- This is the IO being the legitimate source of information as such meanings, they can create and have
effects on various policies.

3. Power to diffuse norms

- They can create norms regarding the implementation and conceptualization of the development projects.
Impose global values and norms with the desire to shape practices by establishing, articulating norms that
defines acceptable and legitimate behavior.
United Nations

 An international organization founded in 1945. It is currently made up of 193 member states. The
mission and work of the UN are guided by the purposes and principles contained in the founding
charter.

Charter: Mission or Work of the United Nation

 Peace and security
 Climate change
 Sustainable development
 Human Rights
 Disarmament
 Terrorism
 Humanitarian and Health Emergencies
 Gender Equality
 Governance
 Food production

The aims of the UN are the: Primary Aims

 To keep peace throughout the world

Example: Holding of the world Olympics, Miss Universe
 To develop friendly relations between nations
Example: Signing of bilateral agreement or treaty
 To help nations work together to improve the lives of poor people, to conquer hunger,
disease and illiteracy, and to encourage respect for each other’s rights and freedoms
Example: Sending of missionaries from one country to another, representing different nations.
 To be a center for helping nations

Five active organizations of the UN:

1. General Assembly (GA)

 The main function is to deliberate policy making and representative organizations. All the
members meet in the general assembly hall at New York for the annual General Assembly
sessions. Elected president have 1-year term.

2. Security Council (SC)

 The role of this organization takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or
act of aggression. 5 permanent members out of the 15 countries, the permanent members are:
China, France, Soviet Union, United Kingdom, United States. The rest of the 15 members can
be elected from the 193 countries. Elected members hold their place on the Council for a 2-year
term.

3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

 This is the principal body for coordination, policy review and dialogues, and recommendation of
social and environmental issues. The elected serves for 3 years.

4. International Court of Justice

 To settle in accordance with the international law and also give advisory opinions. The decisions
are only binding when the states have explicitly agreed in place themselves to the court’s
authority. Held by 15 judges where members of the panel of judges hold 9 years of terms.

5. Secretariat
 To carry out the day to day work of the UN as mandated by the GA and the organization’s other
principles.

In the late 1960, Salvador P. Lopez, became the chairman of the UN commission of human
rights.

Challenges of the United Nations:

In 2001, the US invaded Iraq. Claiming that Saddam Husain had weapons of mass destructions.

During that time, Russia, China, and France were not convinced regarding the claim of the United

States.
 Issues of security
 Military Intervention
 Climate Change
 Human Rights
 Presence of Refugees
 Atomic Energy