LESSON 2: THE GLOBALIZATION OF WORLD ECONOMICS

Economic Globalization
 historical process representing the result of human innovation and technological
progress
 characterized by the increasing integration of economies around the world through the
movement of goods, services, and capital across borders.

SIGNS OF ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION / INCREASED TRADE

1. increased value of trade
 “a drastic economic change is occurring throughout the world”
 the value of trade (goods and services) as a percentage of world GDP increased from
42.1 percent in 1980 to 62.1 percent in 2007.
2. faster investment movement
 Increased trade also means that investments are moving all over the world at faster
speeds.
 According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the
amount of foreign direct investments flowing across the world was US$ 57 billion in
1982.
 By 2015, that number was $1.76 trillion.
 represent a dramatic increase in global trade in the span of just a few decades.
3. 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.
4. change in items being sold
 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

Silk Road
 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.
 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).
  used by traders regularly from 130 BCE when the Chinese Han dynasty opened trade to
the West until 1453 BCE when the Ottoman Empire closed it.
 not truly "global" because it had no ocean routes that could reach the American
continent.

So when did full economic globalization begin?

 According to historians 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."
o the first time that the Americas were directly connected to Asian trading routes
(economic globalization began on the PH shores)
o part of the age of mercantilism

16th - 18th century, Europe

 countries competed with one another to sell more goods as a means to boost their
country's income (called monetary reserves later on)
 regimes (mainly monarchies) imposed high tariffs, forbade colonies to trade with other
nations, restricted trade routes, and subsidized its exports.
o Goal: to defend their products from competitors who sold goods more cheaply

 Mercantilism was thus also a system of global trade with multiple restrictions.

Gold Standard
 more open trade system emerged in 1867
 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.
 established a common basis for currency prices and a fixed exchange rate system-all
based on the value of gold.
 a very restrictive system, as it compelled countries to back their currencies with
fixed gold reserves.
 During World War I, when countries 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 redeemable in
gold.

The Great Depression

  started during the 1920s and extended up to the 1930s
 emptied government coffers.
 the worst and 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 the
1970s, the world never returned to the gold standard of the early 20th century.
 Today, the world economy operates based on what are called:
o fiat currencies — currencies that are not backed by precious metals and whose
value is determined by their cost relative to other currencies.
o allows governments to freely and actively manage their economies by increasing
or decreasing the amount of money in circulation as they see fit.

The Bretton Woods System

 inaugurated with the goal to create a global economic system that would ensure a
longer-lasting global peace.
o set up a network of global financial institutions that would promote economic
interdependence and prosperity.
 inaugurated in 1944 during the United Nations Monetary and Financial
Conference to prevent the catastrophes of the early decades of the century from
reoccurring and affecting international ties.
 largely influenced by the ideas of British economist John Maynard Keynes: “economic
crises occur not when a country does not have enough money, but when money is not
being spent and, thereby, not moving.”
 KEYNESIANISM: When economies slow down, governments have to reinvigorate
markets with infusions of capital.
o active role of governments in managing spending

 Created two financial institutions:

1. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, or World
Bank): responsible for funding postwar reconstruction projects (from war)
2. International Monetary Fund (IMF): the global lender of last resort to prevent
individual countries from spiraling into credit crises. If economic growth in a country
slowed down because there was not enough money to stimulate the economy, the IMF
would step in.
 Shortly after Bretton Woods, various countries also committed themselves to further
global economic integration through the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT) in 1947.
 o purpose: to reduce tariffs and other hindrances to free trade.

Neoliberalism and Its Discontents

The high point of global Keynesianism came in the mid- 1940s to the early 1970s. During this
period, governments poured money into their economies, allowing people to purchase more
goods and, in the process, increase demand for these products. As demand increased, so did
the prices of these goods. Western and some Asian economies like Japan accepted this rise in
prices because it was accompanied by general economic growth and reduced unemployment.
The theory went that, as prices increased, companies would earn more, and would have more
money to hire workers. Keynesian economists believed that all this was a necessary trade-off
for economic development.

In the early 1970s, however, the prices of oil rose sharply as a result of the Organization of
Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OAPEC, the Arab member-countries of the Oganization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC) imposition of an embargo in response to the
decision of the United States and other countries to resupply the Israeli military with the
needed arms during the Yom Kippur War. Arab countries also used the embargo to stabilize
their economies and growth. The "oil embargo" affected the Western economies that were
reliant on oil." To make matters worse, the stock markets crashed in 1973- 1974 after the
United States stopped linking the dollar to gold, effectively ending the Bretton Woods
system." The result was a phenomenon that Keynesian economics could not have predicted a
phenomenon called stagflation, in which a decline in economic growth and employment
(stagnation) takes place alongside a sharp increase in prices (inflation).

Neoliberalism
 Economists such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman argued that the
governments' practice of pouring money into their economies had caused inflation by
increasing demand for goods without necessarily increasing supply.
 “government intervention in economies distorts the proper functioning of the market.”
 1980s onward - neoliberalism became the codified strategy of the:
o United States Treasury Department

o the World Bank

o the IMF

o the World Trade Organization (WTO) - a new organization founded in 1995 to

continue the tariff reduction under the GATT. The policies they forwarded came to
be called the Washington Consensus.
 Washington consensus - using neoliberalism as a codified strategy of the
aforementioned organization and the policies they forwarded.
o dominated global economic policies from the 1980s until the early 2000s

o its advocates pushed for minimal government spending to reduce

government debt.
 o also called for the privatization of government-controlled services like water,
power, communications, and transport, believing that the free market can
produce the best results
o pressured governments, particularly in the developing world, to reduce tariffs
and open up their economies, arguing that it is the quickest way to progress.
o “along the way, certain industries would be affected and die, but they considered
this "shock therapy" necessary for long-term economic growth.”
 Its advocates like US President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher justified their reduction in government spending by comparing
national economies to households. Thatcher, in particular, promoted an image of
herself as a mother, who reigned in overspending to reduce the national debt.
o The problem with the household analogy is that governments are not
households. For one, governments can print money, while households cannot.
o Moreover, the constant taxation systems of governments provide them a steady
flow of income that allows them to pay and refinance debts steadily.
 Washington Consensus defects
o Post-communist Russia

 IMF called for the immediate privatization of all government industries,

assuming that such a move would free these industries from corrupt
bureaucrats and pass them on to the more dynamic and independent
private investors.
 But, only individuals and groups who had accumulated wealth under the
previous communist order had the money to purchase these industries
 the economic elites relied on easy access to government funds to take
over the industries
 entrenched an oligarchy (power rests with a small number of people) that
still dominates the Russian economy to this very day.

The Global Financial Crisis and the Challenge to Neoliberalism

 the "shock therapy" of neoliberalism did not lead to the ideal outcomes predicted by
economists who believed in perfectly free markets.
 global financial crisis of 2008-2009
 Significant strain during the global financial crisis of 2007-2008; can be traced back to
the 1980s when the United States systematically removed various banking and
investment restrictions.
 continued until the 2000s, government authorities failed to regulate bad
investments occurring in the US housing market.
o "cheap housing loans”; began building houses that were beyond their financial
capacities
o to mitigate the risk of these loans, banks that were lending houseowners' money
pooled these mortgage payments and sold them as "mortgage-backed
securities" (MBSs).
 One MBS would be a combination of multiple mortgages that they
assumed would pay a steady rate.
  demand for MBSs increased > investors clamoring more investment
opportunities > so much surplus money circulating > banks less
discriminating (extending loans to poor families)
 sub-prime mortgages - high-risk mortgages
o Assumptions:

 a few failures would not ruin the entirety of the investment

 housing prices would continue to increase (when home loans unpaid,
return the homes and sell at a higher price)
o Reality:

 home prices stopped increasing as supply caught up with demand

 families could not pay off loans
 Reached a tipping point (2008), hen major investment banks like Lehman
Brothers collapsed, thereby depleting major investments.
 Crisis spread beyond US, since many investors were foreign governments, corporations,
and individuals.
o These series of interconnections allowed for a global multiplier effect that
sent ripples across the world.
o 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.
o 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: 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
 felt most acutely by the poor
 lowed down growth and ensured high levels of unemployment.
 US recovered quickly thanks to a large Keynesian-style stimulus package that
President Barack Obama pushed for in his first months in office.
 The same cannot be said for many other countries.
o In Europe, the continuing economic crisis has sparked a political upheaval.

 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.

Economic Globalization Today

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.
o 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.
o 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.
 Trade liberalization - the WTO-led reduction of trade barriers that has altered the
dynamics of the global economy
 as a result of these increased exports, economic globalization has ushered in an
unprecedented spike in global growth rates.
o 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.

“ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION REMAINS AN UNEVEN PROCESS”

… with some countries, corporations, and individuals benefiting a lot more than others.

1. Developed countries are often protectionists

 they repeatedly refuse to lift policies that safeguard their primary products that could
otherwise be overwhelmed by imports from the developing world.
 Example: Japan's determined refusal to allow rice imports into the country to protect
its farming sector. 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.
 Example: 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.
 poorer countries can do very little to make economic globalization more just.
 Trade imbalances, therefore, characterize economic relations between developed and
developing countries.

2. The beneficiaries of global commerce have been mainly transnational corporations

(TNCs) and not governments.
 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.
 Race to the bottom: to lure in foreign investors seeking high profit margins at the
lowest cost possible, countries…
o lower their labor standards, including the protection of workers' interests

o weaken environmental laws > creating fatal consequences on their ecological

balance and depleting them of their finite resources (like oil, coal, and minerals).

Trade imbalances in the Philippines due to deals under GATT and WTO
 sector that was particularly affected: agriculture
 According to Walden Bello and a team of researchers at Focus on the Global South,
the US used its power under the GATT system to prevent Philippine importers from
purchasing Philippine poultry and pork-even as it sold meat to the Philippines.
 Although the Philippines expected to make up losses in sectors like meat with gains in
areas such as coconut products, no significant change was realized
 the Philippines became a net food importer under the GATT
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.
o 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 (external
politics) rather than their internal politics.
o These scholars look at trade deals between states.

o They also study political, military, and other diplomatic engagements between
two or more countries. These scholars are studying international relations.
o Moreover, when they explore the deepening of interactions between states, they
refer to the phenomenon of internationalization.

INTERNATIONALIZATION
 does not equal globalization, although it is a major part of globalization

The Attributes of Today's Global System

FOUR KEY ATTRIBUTES OF WORLD POLITICS

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 organizations, like the United Nations (UN), that facilitate these
interactions.
4. Beyond simply facilitating meetings between states, international organizations also
take on lives of their own.
a. The UN, for example, apart from being a meeting ground for presidents and
other heads of state, also has task-specific agencies like the World Health
Organization (WHO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO).

What are the origins of this system? A good start is by unpacking what one means when
he/she says a "country," or what academics also call the nation-state. This concept is not as
simple as it seems. The nation-state is a relatively modern phenomenon in human history,
and people did not always organize themselves as countries. At different parts in the history
of humanity, people in various regions of the world have identified exclusively with units as
small as their village or their tribe, and at other times, they see themselves as members of
larger political categories like "Christendom" (the entire Christian world).

“Country” or “Nation-State” (according to academics) - relatively modern phenomenon in

human history; people did not always organize themselves as countries

Not all states are nations and not all nations are states.
 Not all states are nations (UK as a state, but not entirely a nation but is composed
of a lot of them): The nation of Scotland, for example, has its own flag and national
culture, but still belongs to a state called the United Kingdom.
 Not all nations are state: Many commentators believe that the Bangsamoro is a
separate nation existing within the Philippines but, through their elites, recognizes the
authority of the Philippine state.
 Single nations with multiple states: The nation of Korea is divided into North and
South Korea, whereas the "Chinese nation" may refer to both the People's Republic of
China (the mainland) and Taiwan.

What then is the difference between nation and state?

State - a country and its government, i.e., the government of the Philippines.
 Has four attributes:
1. Exercises authority over a specific population, called its citizens.
2. Governs a specific territory.
3. Has a structure of government that crafts various rules that people (society) follow.
4. Has sovereignty over its territory.
 refers to internal and external authority.
 Internal: no individuals or groups can operate in a given national territory by ignoring
the state. 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.
 External: sovereignty means that a state's policies and procedures are independent
of the interventions of other states. Russia or China, for example, cannot pass laws
for the Philippines and vice versa.

Nation - according to Benedict Anderson, is an "imagined community."

 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.
 Being limited - nation has its boundaries.
o Example: Anyone, for example, can become a Catholic if one chooses to.

o Example: But not everyone can simply become a Filipino. An American cannot
simply go to the Philippine Embassy and "convert" into a Philippine citizen.
 often limit themselves to people who have:
1. imbibed a particular culture
2. speak a common language
3. live in a specific territory.
 "imagined" ≠ made- up - the nation allows one to feel a connection with a
community of people even if he/she will never meet all of them in his/her
lifetime.
o Example: 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. In a given national
territory like the Philippine archipelago, you rest in the comfort that the majority
of people living in it are also Fillipinos.
 Most nations strive to become states.
o 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."
o If there are communities that are not states, they often seek some form of
autonomy within their "mother states."
 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).
 Example: Scotland, though part of the United Kingdom, has a strong
independence movement led by the Scottish Nationalist Party.

Nation and state are closely related because it is nationalism that facilitates state
formation.
 It has been the nationalist movements that have allowed for the creation of nation-
states.
  States become independent and sovereign because of nationalist sentiment that
clamors for this independence.

Sovereignty is, one of the fundamental principles of modern state politics.

The Interstate System

Treaty of Westphalia - a set of agreements signed in 1648 to end the Thirty Years' War
between the major continental powers of Europe.
 After a brutal religious war between Catholics and Protestants, the Holy Roman Empire,
Spain, France, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic designed a system that would avert
wars in the future by recognizing that the treaty signers exercise complete control
over their domestic affairs and swear not to meddle in each other's affairs.
 Challenge: Napoleon Bonaparte - believed in spreading the principles of the French
Revolution-liberty, equality, and fraternity-to the rest of Europe and thus challenged the
power of kings, nobility, and religion in Europe.
o Napoleonic Code - forbade birth privileges, encouraged freedom or religion,
and promoted meritocracy in government service.
 Anglo and Prussian armies finally defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815,
ending the latter's mission to spread his liberal code across Europe.

The Concert of Europe - system that restored the Westphalian system; (1) to prevent
another war, (2) to keep their systems of privilege
 an alliance of "great powers" (the United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and Prussia) that
sought to restore the world of monarchical, hereditary, and religious privileges of the
time before the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.
 sought to restore the sovereignty of states.
 Under this Metternich system (named after the Austrian diplomat, Klemens von
Metternich, who was the system’s main architect), the Concert’s lasted from 1815 to
1914, at the dawn of World War I.
 PRESENT IMPLICATIONS:
 Until now, states are considered sovereign, and Napoleonic attempts to violently
impose systems of government in other countries are frowned upon.
 "great powers" still hold significant influence over world politics.
o 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 - a system of heightened interaction between various sovereign states,

particularly the desire for greater cooperation and unity among states and peoples.
 divided into two broad categories:
1. liberal internationalism
2. socialist internationalism
LIBERAL INTERNATIONALISM

Immanuel Kant (late 18th century German philosopher) “the need to form common
international principles.”
 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, the international system would be chaotic.”
o 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."
 imagined a form of global government.

Jeremy Bentham (late 18th century British philosopher)

 coined the word "international" in 1780
 advocated the creation of "international law" that would govern the inter-state
relations.
 objective global legislators should aim to propose legislation that would create "the
greatest happiness of all nations taken together."

Giuseppe Mazzini (19th century Italian patriot) “principles of cooperation and respect
among nation-states”
 first thinker to reconcile nationalism with liberal internationalism
 an advocate of the unification of the various Italian-speaking mini-states and a major
critic of the Metternich system
 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.
 free, independent states would be the basis of an equally free, cooperative
international system
 a nationalist internationalist, who believes that free, unified nation-states
should be the basis of global cooperation.

Woodrow Wilson (United States president 1913-1921) “democracy and self-

determination”
 became one of the 20th century's most prominent internationalist
 saw nationalism as a prerequisite for internationalism
 forwarded the principle of self-determination - the belief that the world's nations
had a right to a free, and sovereign government
  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.
 became the most notable advocate for the creation of the League of Nations.
o At the end of World War I in 1918, he pushed to transform the League into a
venue for conciliation and arbitration to prevent another war.
o awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

League of Nations
 the United States was not able to join the organization due to strong opposition from
the Senate
 unable to hinder another war from breaking out
o helpless to prevent the onset and intensification of World War II.

o 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.
o Axis Powers vs the Allied Powers (composed of the United States, United
Kingdom, France, Holland, and Belgium)
 gave birth to some of the more task-specific international organizations that are still
around until today (WHO & ILO)
 served as the blueprint for future forms of international cooperation
o League of Nations' principles survived World War II.

 the concretization of the concepts of liberal internationalism.

SOCIALIST INTERNATIONALISM

Karl Marx
 an internationalist but did not believe in nationalism.
 “any true form of internationalism should deliberately reject nationalism, which rooted
people in domestic concerns instead of global ones”
 placed a premium on economic equality; divide the world into countries, but into
classes.
o Capitalist class: the owners of factories, companies, and other "means of
production."
o Proletariat class: included those who did not own the means of production, but
instead, worked for the capitalists.

Friedrich Engels
 Co-author of Marx
  believed that in a socialist revolution seeking to overthrow the state and alter the
economy, the proletariat "had no nation."
 they opposed nationalism because they believed it prevented the unification of
the world's workers.
 Nationalism could make workers in individual countries identify with the capitalists of
their countries.

Socialist International (SI)

 Marx’s followers make his vision concrete by establishing their international
organization
 a union of European socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889.
 Achievements:
o the declaration of May 1 as Labor Day

o the creation of an International Women's Day.

o initiated the successful campaign for an 8-hour workday.

 collapsed during World War I as the member parties refused or were unable to join the
internationalist efforts to fight for the war
o sister parties even ended up fighting each other

o confirmation of Marx's warning: when workers and their organizations take

the side of their countries instead of each other, their long-term
interests are compromised.
 managed to re-establish itself in 1951, but its influence remained primarily confined to
Europe, and has never been considered a major player in international relations

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)

 replaced by a revolutionary government led by the Bolshevik Party and its leader,
Vladimir Lenin
 did not believe in obtaining power for the working class through elections
o they exhorted the revolutionary "vanguard" parties to lead the revolutions across
the world, using methods of terror if necessary
o Referred to as Communist parties today

 Lenin established the Communist International (Comintern) in 1919.

o served as the central body for directing Communist parties all over the world.

o less democratic because it followed closely the top-down governance of the

Bolshevik
o working in secret to stir up revolutions in their countries

 Problem: Soviet Union joined the Allied Powers in 1941

o The United States and the United Kingdom would, of course, not trust the Soviet
Union in their fight against Hitler's Germany. These countries wondered if the
Soviet Union was trying to promote revolutions in their backyards.
 o To appease his allies, Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, dissolved the Comintern
in 1943.

Communist Information Bureau (Cominform)

 Re-establishment of the Comintern by Stalin
 The Soviet Union took over the countries in Eastern Europe when the United States, the
Soviet Union, and Great Britain divided the war-torn Europe into their respective
spheres of influence
 helped direct the various communist parties that had taken power in Eastern Europe.
LESSON 4: THE UNITED NATIONS AND CONTEMPORARY WORLD GOVERNANCE

Global governance - various intersection processes that create an international order (to
adhere to certain global norms)

Sources of Global Governance

1. States sign treaties and form organizations, in the process legislating public
international law
 Public international law - international rules that govern interactions between states
as opposed to private companies
o the body of rules that is legally binding on States in their interactions with other
States, individuals, organizations and other entities.
o It covers a range of activities; such as, diplomatic relations, conduct of war,
trade, human rights and etc.
2. International non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can lobby individual states to
behave in a certain way
3. Powerful transnational corporations (TNCs) can have tremendous effects on global
labor laws, environmental legislation, trade policy, etc)

International Organizations (IOs) - international intergovernmental organizations or groups

that are primarily made up of member-states (e.g. UN, IMF, World Bank, sometimes NGOs)
 Fallacy: IOs are amalgamations of various interests (venue for intersecting agendas
discussion)
 IOs can take on lives of their own (e.g. IMF promote economic orthodoxies)
 IOs can become influential as independent organizations

Powers of IOs by Michael N. Barnett and Martha Finnemore

1. IOs have the power of classification
 Invent and apply categories to create powerful global standards
 Example: UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) defines what a refugee is; now
states are required to accept refugees entering their borders
 2. IOs have the power to fix meanings
 IOs as legitimate sources of information which has effects on various policies
 Example: UN define “security” as not just safety from military violence, but also safety
from environmental harm
3. IOs have the power to diffuse norms
 Norms - accepted codes of conduct that may not be strict law, but produce regularity
in behavior
 IOs spread ideas across the world, establishing standards
 IOs are “missionaries” of our time
 IOs are staffed with independent bureaucracies (who are experts in various fields)
 Example: World Bank economists carry some form of authority (create norms in
implementation and conceptualization of development projects)

“IOs can be sources of great good and great harm”

 Can promote relevant norms (e.g. environmental protection, human rights)
 Can also become sealed-off communities that fail to challenge their beliefs
 Joseph Stiglitz (Nobel Prize-winning economist) - criticized IMF for using a “one-size-
fits-all” approach when its economists made recommendations to developing countries

THE UNITED NATIONS

 Formed as a result of the push for the formation of a more lasting international league

FIVE ACTIVE UN ORGANS

1. General Assembly (GA)

2. Security Council (SC)

3. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

4. International Court of Justice

 5. Secretariat

Trusteeship Council

Challenges of the United Nations

1. Limits placed upon its various organs and programs by the need to respect state
sovereignty
 UN function because of voluntary cooperation; if states refuse to cooperate, the
influence of the UN can be severely circumscribed
2. Issues of security
 Because of P5’s veto power, it is tough for the council to release a formal resolution,
much more implement it
 Example: Kosovo war with US intervention (late 1990s).
 Someone in the P5 can shield away from any policy that could weaken the legitimacy of
its allies
LESSON 5: A WORLD OF REGIONS

Regionalism - can be examined in relation to identities, ethics, religion, ecological

sustainability, and health
 a “process”, and must be treated as an “emergent, socially constituted phenomenon”
 Regions are not natural or given; they are constructed and defined by policymakers,
economic actors, and even social movements

Features of a Region by Edward D. Mansfield and Helen V. Milner

1. Regions are “a group of countries located in the same geographically specified
area” or are “an amalgamation of two regions [or] a combination of more than two
regions” organized to regulate and “oversee flows and policy choices”
2. Regionalization - “regional concentration of economic flows”
Regionalism - “a political process characterized by economic policy cooperation and
coordination among countries”

How countries respond economically and politically to globalization

1. Some are large enough and have a lot of resources to dictate how they participate in
processes of global integration
 Example: China offers cheap and huge workforce to attract foreign businesses and
expand trade
2. Other countries make up for their small size by taking advantage of their strategic
location
 Example: Singapore and Switzerland turn themselves into financial and banking hubs
3. Countries form a regional alliance

Why countries form regional associations

1. For military defense

 Example: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
o Formed during the Cold War

o Protect Europe against the threat of the Soviet Union

o In response to this, Soviet Union creates its regional alliance, the Warsaw Pact,
consisting of the Eastern European countries under Soviet domination
2. To pool their resources, get better returns for their exports, and expand their leverage
against trading partners
  Example: Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
o Established in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela

o To regulate the production and sale of oil

o Took over domestic production and dictated crude oil prices in the world market

3. To protect their independence from the pressures of superpower politics

 Example: Non-Aligned Movement (NAM)
o Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia (1961)

o To pursue world peace and international cooperation, human rights, national

sovereignty, racial and national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful conflict
resolution
o Non-aligned because the association refused to side with either the First World
capitalist democracies in Western Europe and North America or the communist
states in Eastern Europe
4. Economic crises compels countries to come together
 Example: Collapse of the Thai economy
o In 1996, after foreign currency speculators and troubled international banks
demanded that the Thai government pay back its loans
o After ASEAN countries establishment of emergency fund that the crisis is
reserved

Non-State Regionalism
 “New regionalism” - states that agree to work together in the name of a single cause
(or causes)
o Tiny associations that include no more than a few actors and focus on a single
issue or huge continental unions that address a multitude of common problems
o Rely on the:

1. Power of individuals
2. NGOs
3. Associations
o Identified with reformists who share the same “value, norms, institutions, and system
that exist outside of the traditional, established mainstream institutions and systems”

 Strategies and tactics

1. Partner with governments to initiate social change

 Those who work with governments (“legitimizers”) participate in “institutional
mechanisms that afford some civil society groups voice and influence [in] technocratic
policy-making processes”
  Examples
o ASEAN issued the Human Rights Declaration in 2009. “New regionalism”
organizations used this declaration to pressure these governments to pass laws
and regulations that protect and promote human rights
o Left-wing governments in South America support Hemispheric Social Alliance’s
opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
o Members of the Roundtable of National Associations and Networks and NGOs in
Latin America and the Carribean participate in forums, summits, and dialogues
with presidents and ministers
o Citizen Diplomacy Forum tries to influence the policies and programs of the
Organization of American States
o ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights - result of NGOs and civil society
groups pushing to “prevent discrimination, uphold political freedom, and
promote democracy and human rights throughout the region”
2. Dedicate themselves to specialized causes
 Examples
o Activists across Central and South America established the Rainforest
Foundation to protect indigenous peoples and the rainforests
o Young Christians across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the
Caribbean formed Regional Interfaith Youth Networks to promote “conflict
prevention, resolution, peace education, and sustainable development
o The Migrant Forum in Asia is committed to protecting and promoting the
rights and welfare of migrant workers

Challenges
 Power lies in their moral standing and their ability to combine lobbying with pressure
politics, but most of them are poorly financed (impact, therefore, is limited)
 Differs significantly when it comes to identifying problems (New regionalism vs
traditional state-to-state regionalism)
 Discord may emerge among them (e.g. issues like gender and religion)
 Resurgence of militant nationalism and populism (appeal to ordinary people who
feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups)
 Differing visions of what regionalism should be for
o Other see it as a form of democratization while some consider it as an
“obstacle”