Republic of the Philippines

Surigao del Sur State University

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Website: www.sdssu.edu.ph
Chapter 4: THE GLOBAL INTERSTATE SYSTEM

➢ Introduction
➢ Effects of Globalization to Governments
- Traditional Challenges
- Challenges from Nationality/Identity Movements
- Global Economics
- Global Social Movements
➢ The Relevance of the State amid Globalization
➢ Institutions that Govern International Relations
- Peace Treaties and Military Alliances: The UN and
NATO
- Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
- Global Economic Associations: The WTO and NAFTA
➢ Globalization and Globalism
➢ Informationalism
➢ Global Citizenship
 - a system of international relations

State
– “the institution that creates warfare and sets economic policies for a country.”
- It is a political unit that has authority over its own affairs. In other words, its borders
are recognized by other countries. It is assumed that whoever is in charge of those
borders has the right to determine exactly what is going to happen in their country.

Global Governance

Global governance - a collective management of common transnational or global

problems, which are those problems that were created, or exacerbated by
globalization, and the problems which cannot be managed at the level of the nation
state, by the nation state.

Management of these problems is provided through a very highly complicated,

flexible, and loose systems of rules, institutions and processes, and involving huge
number of both states and non-state actors.

Therefore, global governance is the management of problems which are created by

globalization, management of the problems through rules, institutions and processes,
and management which involves both state and non-state actors.

What kind of problems does global governance deals with?

• Global climate change and pollution of the environment
• poverty and management over economic development
• deficit of fresh water in the world
• financial instability and management of financial markets
• global economic crisis and recessions
• management of global trade and investment
• global energy markets and the instability of global energy
• global migrations
• pandemics such as the Ebola virus
• transnational terrorism
• transnational organized crime, etc.

As these problems have become common, or global, or transnational in conditions

of globalization, they can no longer be tolerated and require collective action to be
managed.
What is common to all those problems that I have enumerated before, or mentioned
before, is that they cannot be dealt with, they cannot be managed at the national
level by individual states acting alone.

No state acting alone can resolve the turbulence of global economy and water
economic crisis. No state acting alone can overcome terrorist challenge, or fully
protect itself from the transborder diseases. No state, except for instance with North
Korea, cannot protect itself from the spread of dangerous ideas and extremist
ideologies. Thus, what is needed is collective action, collective management of these
problems, and this collective management is basically global governance.

So, we can make a conclusion that global governance is only about managing
problems and issue areas related to globalization, and the consequences, and ethics
of globalization.

Global Governance in the Twenty-First Century

Series of Specific Factors behind the Emergence of Global Governance

1st – The declining power of nation-states.

If states themselves were “highly contingent and in flux”, it would open the possibility
of the emergence of some form of global governance to fill the void.

2nd – Vast flows of all sorts of things that run into and often right through the borders
of nation-state.
This could involve the flow of digital information of all sorts through the internet. It is
difficult, if not impossible, for a nation-state to stop such flow and in any case, it is likely
that such action would be politically unpopular and bring much negative reaction to
the nation-state involved in such effort.

3rd – There is mass migration of people and their entry, often illegally, into various
nation-state.
The flow of criminal elements, as well as their products (drugs, laundered money, those
bought and sold in sex trafficking, etc.), is a strong call for global governance.

4th – Horrendous events within nation-states that the states themselves either foment
and carry-out, or are unable to control.

5th – There are global problems that single nation-state cannot hope to tackle on their
own.
One is the global financial crises and panic that sweep the world periodically, which
nations are often unable to deal with on their own.
 EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION TO GOVERNMENT

Government – a group of people who have the ultimate authority to act on behalf
of a state.

❖ Traditional Changes

• External Intervention – can generally be described as invasion by other

countries.
• Internal Intervention –
Ex.
- After the Arab Spring in Egypt, a new constitution was created and
a government was elected.
- In Syria, the original rebellion against Assad came from the country’s
own internal dissenters who wanted to replace the government even
though they were also Syrian nationals.

❖ Challenges from National/Identity Movements

It is important to know that a nation has cultural identity that people attached
to, while a state is a definite entity due to its specific boundaries. However,
different people with different identities can live in different states.

❖ Global Economics

Global economy demands the states to conform to the rules of free-market

capitalism.

Neoliberal Economics or Neoliberal Capitalism

- Started in the 1980s.
- It focuses on free trade and dismantling trade barriers.
- It made sure that governments did not impose restrictive regulations
on corporate presence, as well as on the free flow of capital and
jobs.
o Free Trade – was seen as the ideal or the normative belief, that is, the
best economy is one where there is free trade everywhere. Laws and
standards that would interfere with the flow of capital in a particular
country, including environmental regulations, were deemed to
discourage economic growth.
- Neoliberal economics requires a state to cooperate in the global
market through the free flow of capital, the privatization of services,
and fiscal austerity or constraint.
- In return, the government’s role is diminished as it relates to the
market.
 - Neoliberal economics is seen as a threat, in general, because a state
cannot protect its own economic interest as a sovereign state.
"Neoliberalism" is contemporarily used to refer to market-oriented reform
policies such as "eliminating price controls, deregulating capital markets,
lowering trade barriers" and reducing state influence in the economy,
especially through privatization and austerity.

Ex. Greece is one example that explains how neoliberal economics can
threaten the sovereignty of a state. It began in 1981 when Greece joined the
EU. As a larger alliance, the EU broke down all kinds of barriers among its
member states including Greece, like passports, visas, and license plates. It
allowed people to travel across European borders and encouraged
economic cooperation and collaboration of member states. Twenty years
later, Greece adopted the euro as its own currency and got rid of drachma.
The government of Greece borrowed money for infrastructure improvements,
largely linked to their hosting of the 2004 Olympics. This put Greece in a large
debt. In 2007 and 2008, the worldwide financial crisis made Greece’s
economy to collapse.
Aside from high debt that burdened the government, Greece had
several of its employees struggling with pensions. Tax revenues were lower, and
as a result, they could not pay their debts back. In 2009, their credit rating
dropped which made it harder for them to pay back their debt. This led to a
series of austerity packages in Greece which meant that there was less
government spending. IMF bailed them out from crises in exchange for more
austerity.

Austerity is a set of political-economic policies that aim to reduce government

budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of
both. Austerity measures are used by governments that find it difficult to pay
their debts.

In conclusion, economic crises can force government to subscribe the terms

and conditions of the global financial market and of other nations that can
help them regain economic stability.
❖ Global Social Movements

Social Movements – are movements of people that are spontaneous or that

emerge through enormous grassroots organization. These social movements
are transnational movements which means they occur across countries and
across borders. Therefore, states have less control over them.

For examples:
Human rights movements create a public sentiment, value, and agenda.
The idea is that there are certain rights that states cannot neglect or generally,
what we call human rights.

If a country decides that they are going to have a particular policy and if that
policy violates the international standard of human rights, there is a challenge
to the ability of states to fully implement it.

Ex. United States’ position on the death penalty. There is an international

consensus, with a few dissenting countries like China, South Africa, and Russia,
against the death penalty. This means that if somebody is sentenced by death
penalty and somehow he is in a country around the world, there are rules
against the state extraditing into the United States.

The environmental movement

Ex. Blockadia or the state where social movements emerging local areas fight
back as a response to the controlling efforts by the apparatus of government
to protect the interest of neoliberal capitalists.

Consensus on women’s rights is another example in many countries. Arguably,

the biggest conflict between the West and the Fundamentalist Islam is over
the role of women in society, as well as women’s autonomy. Rights of personal
autonomy are another example and this includes issues on homosexuality,
same-sex marriage, and gender equality.
 THE RELEVANCE OF THE STATE AMID GLOBALIZATION

State – a distinctive political community with its own set of rules and practices and
that is more or less separate from other communities.

It has 4 elements: people, territory, government, and sovereignty.

1. Permanent Population – this population does not refer to a nomadic people that
move from one place to another in an indefinite time. This permanent presence
in one location is strengthened by the second element of a state, a defined
territory.

State is a community of persons. It is a human political institution. Without a

population there can be no State. Population can be more or less but it has to be
there. There are States with very small populations like Switzerland, Canada and
others, and there are States like China, India and others, with very large
populations.

The people living in the State are the citizens of the State. They enjoy rights and
freedom as citizens as well as perform several duties towards the State. When
citizens of another State are living in the territory of the State, they are called
aliens. All the persons, citizens as well as aliens, who are living in the territory of the
State are duty bound to obey the state laws and policies. The State exercises
supreme authority over them through its government.

There is no definite limit for the size of population essential for a State. However, it
is recognised that the population should be neither too large nor very small. It has
to be within a reasonable limit. It should be determined on the basis of the size of
the territory of the State, the available resources, the standard of living expected
and needs of defence, production of goods and supplies. India has a very large
and fast growing population and there is every need to check population growth.
It is essential for enhancing the ability of India to register a high level of sustainable
development.

2. Territory – has clear boundaries. A territory is effectively controlled by the third

element, government.

Territory is the second essential element of the State. State is a territorial unit.
Definite territory is its essential component. A State cannot exist in the air or at sea.
It is essentially a territorial State. The size of the territory of a State can be big or
small; nevertheless it has to be a definite, well-marked portion of territory.
 All persons, organisations, associations, institutions and places located within its
territory are under the sovereign jurisdiction of the State. Further, it must be noted
that the territory of the state includes not only the land but also, rivers, lakes, canals
inland seas if any, a portion of coastal sea—territorial waters or maritime belt,
continental shelf, mountains, hills and all other land features along with the air
space above the territory.

3. Government – regulates relations among its own people and with other states.

Government is the organisation or machinery or agency or magistracy of the

State which makes, implements, enforces and adjudicates the laws of the state.
Government is the third essential element of the State. The state exercises its
sovereign power through its government.

This sometimes creates the impression that there is no difference between the
State and Government. However it must be clearly noted that government is just
one element of the State. It is the agent or the working agency of the State.
Sovereignty belongs to the State; the government only uses it on behalf of the
State.

Each government has three organs:

(1) Legislature—which formulates the will of State i.e. performs law-making
functions;
(2) Executive— enforces and implements the laws i.e. performs the law-
application functions; and
(3) Judiciary—which applies the laws to specific cases and settles the disputes
i.e. performs adjudication functions.

Government as a whole is the instrument through which the sovereign power

of the State gets used.

In ancient times, the King used to perform all functions of the government and
all powers of governance stood centralized in his hands. Gradually, however,
the powers of King got decentralized and these came to be exercised by
these three organs of the government: Legislature, Executive and Judiciary.

4. Sovereignty - the most exclusive element of State. State alone posses sovereignty.
Without sovereignty no state can exit. Some institutions can have the first three
elements (Population Territory and Government) but not sovereignty.

State has the exclusive title and prerogative to exercise supreme power over all
its people and territory. In fact, Sovereignty is the basis on which the State
regulates all aspects of the life of the people living in its territory.

State – is a formally constituted sovereign political structure encompassing

people, territory, and its institutions on the one hand, and maintaining its
autonomy from other states on the other hand.
As the supreme power of the State, Sovereignty has two dimensions:
Internal Sovereignty and External Sovereignty.

(i) Internal Sovereignty:

It means the power of the State to order and regulate the activities of all the
people, groups and institutions which are at work within its territory. All these
institutions always act in accordance with the laws of the State. The State can
punish them for every violation of any of its laws.

(ii) External Sovereignty:

It means complete independence of the State from external control. It also means
the full freedom of the State to participate in the activities of the community of
nations. Each state has the sovereign power to formulate and act on the basis of
its independent foreign policy.

We can define external sovereignty of the State as its sovereign equality with
every other state. State voluntarily accepts rules of international law. These
cannot be forced upon the State. India is free to sign or not to sign any treaty with
any other state. No state can force it to do so.

No State can really become a State without sovereignty. India became a State
in 1947 when it got independence and sovereignty. After her independence,
India got the power to exercise both internal and external Sovereignty.
Sovereignty permanently, exclusively and absolutely belongs to the State. End of
sovereignty means end of the State. That is why sovereignty is accepted as the
exclusive property and hallmark of the State.

These are the four essential elements of a State. A State comes to be a state only
when it has all these elements. Out of these four elements, Sovereignty stands
accepted as the most important and exclusive element of the State.
No other organisation or institution can claim sovereignty. An institution can have
population, territory and government but not sovereignty. Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Orissa, Punjab, Sikkim, in fact all states of the Indian Union have their
populations, territories and governments.

These are also loosely called states. Yet these are not really states. These are
integral parts of the Indian State. Sovereignty belongs to India. Sikkim was a state
before it joined India in 1975. Now it is one of the 28 states of India. UNO is not a
state and so is the case of the Commonwealth of Nations, because these do not
possess sovereignty. SAARC is not a state. It is only a regional association of
sovereign states of South Asia.

India, China, U.S.A., U.K., France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Egypt, South Africa,
Brazil, Argentina and others such countries are States because each of these
possesses all the four essential elements of state. The presence of all these four
elements alone vests a State with real statehood.
Each society needs the State. It satisfies several important needs of society:
(1) State provides security against external aggressions and war. For this purpose the state
maintains an army.
(2) State ensures security against internal disturbances disorders and crimes. For this purpose
the state maintains police.
(3) State legally grants and guarantees the rights of the people.
(4) The state issues and regulates currency and coinage.
(5) State undertakes steps for the creation of necessary conditions for the socio-economic-
politico-cultural development of the people.
(6) State grants citizenship and protects their interests and rights.
(7) State conducts foreign relations, foreign trade and economic relations.
(8) State secures the goals of national interest in international relations.

Nation & State

Nation
- refers to a people rather than any kind of formal territorial boundaries or institutions.
- it is a collective identity grounded on a notion of shared history and culture.
- if we talk about the Philippines as a nation, we refer to our shared collective notion of
democracy, our history, and our collective identity.

In other words, the state is a political concept, while a nation is a cultural concept.

State
- through its formalized institutions, more or less reflect nations. This would allow states to have
a certain people with their own collective identity. In turn, they should be allowed to form their
own political state. This is the principle of nation self-determination.

Nation-state
- It is a territorially bounded sovereign institution that governs individuals sharing a collective
history, identity, and culture.

In reality, it is difficult to think of any nation as having any shared national identity. The
Philippines, although formally a state, has a variety of ethnic traditions.

A variety of arguments are made including that nation-states continue to be the major players
on the global stage, that they “retain at least some power in the face of globalization”, that
they vary greatly in “their efficacy in the face of globalization”, and that the rumors of the
demise of the nation-state are greatly exaggerated.

Beland (2008) argued that “the role of the state is enduring – and even increasing – in
advanced industrial societies”. He saw greater demands being placed on the state because
of four major sources of collective insecurity: terrorism; economic globalization, leading to
problems such as outsourcing and pressures toward downsizing, as well as the current
economic crisis; threats to national identity due to immigration; and the spread of global
diseases such as AIDs.

A related point is that it would be a mistake simply “to see globalization as a threat to, a
constraint on, the nation-state; it can also be an opportunity for the nation-state”
 INSTITUTIONS THAT GOVERN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Peace Treaties and Military Alliances: The UN and NATO

NATO and the United Nations (UN) share a commitment to maintaining international
peace and security. The two organizations have been cooperating in this area since
the early 1990s.

UN
The term “United Nations” was coined by former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt
in 1942 (United Nations, 2011).
- Its operations began on October 24, 1945.
- It started with 50 representatives from different countries.
- It functions in 4 areas: military issue, economic issue, environmental issue, and
human protection.
- It has 193 member states.
- The UN, with its headquarters in New York City, was designed to be a place
where countries could come to discuss their issues without resorting to violence
and war.
- Maintaining peace and building friendship is the number one goal of the UN,
as well as providing a forum where countries could gather to discuss global
issues.
- The General Assembly is the gathering of all these countries.
Maintaining international peace and security became the central mission of the UN
after the war. Up to this day, the UN is the major force in governing interstate relations.
According to the UN, peace and security are maintained “by working to prevent
conflict; helping parties in conflict make peace; peacekeeping; and creating the
conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish.”

Security Council
- This group of countries decides what to do when two or more countries are
waging war or are on the verge of fighting.
Five permanent members: United States, Britain, Russia, China, and France.
- Tries to be the arbiter in ceasefires between two sides. They can pass sanctions
like block trade with another country as a punishment. They can send troops
or observers and, if worse comes worst, they can use military force.
General Assembly
- The main deliberative body
- Provides a forum for member states to express their views and reach a
consensus.
International Court of Justice (ICJ) - usually referred to as World Court
- Located in the Netherlands in a town called The Hague.
 - This is where countries can settle disputes in a court of law, as well as a place
where war criminals and rulers who have done terrible things to their people
can be put to trial for their crimes.
- Other International Courts and Tribunals
o International Criminal Court (ICC)
o International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS)

The UN is made up of five organs.

The General Assembly’s roles include handling the budget and admitting new
members. The Secretariat offers administrative support to the other bodies. The
Security Council is responsible for maintaining international peace and security. The
International Court of Justice gives legal opinions and settles disputes. The Economic
and Security Council handles cooperation between states in economic and social
matters.

At one time, there was a Trusteeship Council as a principal organ, but this has been
inactive since 1994.

The UN also has specialized agencies that help the organization fulfill its duties. Some
of these agencies include the World Health Organization that performs vaccinations
and the World Ford Programme that helps prevent malnutrition and famine around
the world.

Programs

Human Protection
- UN believes in democracy and that it is interdependent with development
and respect for all human rights.
• UNICEF or the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.
- Primary goal: to help children around the world.

Economic Issue
- Reduction of global inequality
- The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cover a range of concerns for the
improvement of all aspects of life.
- According to the UN (2017), sustainable development encompasses
economic prosperity, social well-being, and environmental protection.

Environmental Issue
- Issues like pollution and hazardous wastes are addressed through United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

The UN is being criticized as being weak and is unable to stop wars. Because of
this, the next institution continues to play a big role in foreign conflicts.
NATO
- A defensive treaty or a military alliance between the United States, Canada,
and 25 European countries.
- This treaty and international organization is based on the idea of collective
security.
- The countries in this organization basically agreed to combine their militaries
and announce to the world that if a country messes with one of its members,
the other countries will come to their defense.

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs)

Red Cross (Red Crescent in Muslim countries)

- Are not tied to any country. This allows them to operate freely throughout the
world.
- They provide emergency relief such as food, water, and medical supplies for
those whose homes or towns have been destroyed by disaster or war.
- They also monitor the treatment of prisoner of wars and go to conflicts to make
sure that no war crimes are taking place.
- In fact, the Red Cross began as an organization to help those who were
wounded during wars.

Part of why it is important for the Red Cross to be an NGO is that they remain
neutral and would help the wounded from both sides of war. Since they are
neutral, governments are more likely to let them come into their countries to
help. While the headquarters of the International Red Cross is in Geneva,
Switzerland, they have branches all around the world.

Other NGOs dedicated to helping people around the world:

• Doctors Without Borders – provides free emergency healthcare in disaster areas.
• Oxfam – fights famine and disease.
• Amnesty International – speaks out for human rights and political prisoners.
• Save the Children – helps kids get health care and education.
 Global Economic Associations: The WTO and NAFTA

WTO
– Made up of 162 countries around the world and was created with the goal of
increasing free trade. Countries, therefore, can buy and sell goods from one another
without placing taxes on imports or tariffs. In addition, tariffs are used to protect
businesses and companies inside their country.
- Though good in nature, WTO is not without criticism. In fact, a protest in Seattle at a
1999 WTO Conference led to a major riot as some said that WTO was more about
helping large companies and corporations than it was about helping people.

NAFTA
- An economic treaty between the United States, Canada, and Mexico in which the
three countries trade freely without taxing each other.
- NAFTA is not without critics either. Some American autoworkers protested against
NAFTA as several car companies moved their factories to Mexico in search for
cheaper labor.
 GLOBALIZATION AND GLOBALISM

Globalism – refers to the network of connects that transcends distances of different

countries in the world.

Globalization – the increase or decline in the degree of globalism. It focuses on the

forces, the dynamism or speed of these changes.

In other words, the links among countries and people are better associated with
globalism while the speed in which they become linked with one another is
globalization.

The societies in the world have always been connected; what makes the co
temporary world different from the past is the type and speed of connection that
people and societies experience.

We can also differentiate globalism and globalization in terms of “thickness”.

Globalism is thin. As it becomes thicker, globalization happens.

This means that being able to connect countries in the world through a more
dynamic and faster way is globalization.

4 Distinct Dimensions of Globalism

Economic, Military, Environmental, and Social

• Like Economic globalism, the three other dimensions also become thicker and
faster as globalization intensifies.
• Military Globalism – ex. The enormous speed of potential conflict and threat
of nuclear war.
• Environmental Globalism – ex. Global warming continues to accelerate.
• Social & Cultural Globalism – involves movements of ideas, information,
images, and of people who carry ideas and information with them.
 INFORMATIONALISM

Globalization is tied to the notion of networks.

For Castells (2000), “networks constitute the fundamental pattern of life, of all
kinds of life”.

It was previously mentioned that in the present and even in the past, the world is
connected. The difference between globalism and globalization is the speed and
thickness or intensity of connections. Nevertheless, people are connected with one
another whether as a small community or as large country.

The question now is about the type of connection that exists and begins to increase
in the contemporary world. The answer lies on the growth of information as the
binding force among people, things, and places around the globe.

This technological paradigm, associated with computer science and modern

telecommunication, that replaces industrialism is called informationalism
(Castells, 2004).

These are technology, the media, and the Internet.

This is not to say that we do not need to produce material goods such as
factories, clothes, and food; rather exchanging information and knowledge,
which is clearly immaterial goods, becomes central in the contemporary world
(Hardt & Negri, 2000).

This is due to the “three of the most cutting-edge aspects of the social world in
general and globalization in particular” (Ritzer, 2015, p. 134), technology, media,
and the Internet.

The creation of the world’s first container ship in 1956 and the expansion of airfreight
greatly hastened the transport of goods all around the world. But a notable example
of technological advancement is the founding of Federal Express (FedEx) in 1970s. It
makes use of computer technology in its deliveries. Computer technology is used to
check our health through the invention of magnetic resonance imaging (MRIs),
ultrasound, and CT or CAT scans. Space-based technologies were also made
possible through the use of computers (Ritzer, 2015). The launching of satellites for
military surveillance, the use of global positioning systems (GPS), and the operation of
global navigation systems (GNS) are some remarkable examples.

McLuhan and Fiore (2005) argued that in the New Media Age, the importance
lies in the medium, the way in which the message is transmitted, not necessarily
in the content presented through the medium.
 This means that televisions, radios and newspapers have been shaping
“individual subjectivity and culture, not only locally but globally” (Ritzer, 2015)

In addition, the French social theorist Guy Debord (1994) emphasized in his idea of
media spectacles the sophistication and ubiquity of spectacular visual in televisions.
This made TV news a form of entertainment. Although content matters in television
broadcasts, visual spectacle or significance is an important element and perhaps the
primary key to catch the attention of the audience.

When one mentions online social networking, spam, and computer viruses, it is the
internet that binds them all. The Internet is a mark of the contemporary world.
According to Ritzer (2015), “The internet has prompted a flat world thesis;
anyone can be involved in it, at least theoretically”.

Having a computer today in our homes, our schools, our workplace, and accessing
the Internet through personal cellphones allow us to be connected with the rest of
the world. We can gain information by accessing different websites, such as
Facebook and Wikipedia, through the Internet. In the same manner, the information
about ourselves that we share is also exposed. In order to control Internet access and
use, there are mechanism such as personal passwords or in the case of Chinese
government, the “Great Firewall.”

While Globalization allowed the expansion of information, access to modern

technologies is not a universal matter that is available to every person around the
world. The Internet and other technologies are limited by certain barriers. These
barriers include lack of electricity, illiteracy, weak financial systems, and government
regulations.
 GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Citizenship is associated with rights and obligations, for instance, the right to vote and the
obligation to pay taxes. Both rights and obligations link the individual to the state. It is also
has to do with our attitudes. We need to be willing to engage and to spend time and
effort to the community of which we feel part of. Community has traditionally been
regarded as something very local. How, then, can the idea of citizenship be transferred
to the global level?

Caecilia Johanna van Peski (as cited in Barldi, 2012), defined global citizenship
“as a moral and ethical disposition that can guide the understanding of
individuals or groups of local and global contexts, and remind them of their
relative responsibilities within various communities.”

Global citizens are the glue which binds local communities together in an
increasingly globalized world. In van Oeski’s words, “global citizens might be a
new type of people that can travel within these various boundaries and
somehow still make sense of the world” (Beraldi, 2012).

Global citizenship does not automatically entail a single attitude and a particular value
with globalization. We must remember that globalization is not a single phenomenon;
rather, there are many globalizations. While some need to be resisted, others are
welcomed and should be encouraged. They are bound to be multiple features for
multiple globalizations. These globalizations created enemies because according to one
broad view, globalization failed to deliver its promises (Cohen, 2006). The so-called
bottom billion lacks infrastructures and has been disenfranchised. The opponents of
globalization blame either Westernization or global capitalism. Thus, the enemies resist
globalization, especially when it comes to global economy and global governance.

There are three approaches to global economic resistance.

❖ Trade Protectionism – involves the systematic government intervention in foreign trade
through tariffs and non-tariff barriers in order to encourage domestic producers and
deter their foreign competitors (McAleese, 2007). Although there exists a widespread
consensus regarding its inefficiency, trade protectionism is still popular since it shields
the domestic economy from systemic shocks.
❖ Fair Trade – emerged as a counter to neoliberal “free trade” principles. It aims at a
more moral and equitable global economic system in which, for instance, price is not
set by the market; instead, it is negotiated transparently by both producers and
consumers. While it is popular among consumers in the North, it has met only limited
acceptance among producers (Ritzer, 2015). Its ability to supply a mass market and
its applicability to manufacture products are also doubted.
❖ Helping the bottom billion (based on Collier, 2007) – Increasing aid is only one of the
many measures that are required. International norms and standards can be
adapted to the needs of the bottom billion. The reduction of trade barriers would also
reduce the economic marginalization of these people and their nations.

When it comes to dealing with political globalization, increased accountability (Germain,

2004) and transparency are the key issues. All political organizations, at different levels,
should be more accountable for their actions because they are now surrounded by an
“ocean of opacity” (Holzner and Holzner, 2006). Increased transparency has been aided
by various mechanisms such as transnational justice systems, international tribunals, civic
society, and particularly the Transparency International.

Like globalization, resistance to globalization is multiple, complex, contradictory, and

ambiguous. This movement also has the potential to emerge as the new public sphere,
which may uphold progressive values such as autonomy, democracy, peace, ecological
sustainability, and social justice. These forces of resistance are themselves products of
globalization and can be seen as globalization from below (Smith, 2008). According to
della Porta et al. (2006), the impetus for such a movement comes from individuals, groups,
and organizations which are oppressed (i.e., self-perception) by globalization from above
(neoliberal economic system or aggressively expanding nations and corporations). They
seek a more democratic process of globalization. However, globalization from below also
involves less visible, more right-wing elements, such as the America First Part and the
Taliban.

The World Social Forum (WSF) is centered on addressing the lack of democracy in
economic and political affairs (Fisher and Ponniah, 2003). However, the diversity of
elements involved in WSF has been that of cyberactivism, which is based on the “cultural
logic of networking” (Juris, 2005) and “virtual against the violence, discrimination, and
hatred experienced by Chinese residents in Indonesia after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
In 1998, worldwide rallies condemning the violence were made possible through the
Global Huaren which according to Ritzer (2015) “became an interesting global
watchdog for Chinese interests”.

Since there is no single globalization, the future is also multi-dimensional. Some foresee
the continuing expansion of globalization both in general as well as in more specific
globalization. Others have a far more pessimistic vision of “Mad Max” scenarios that could
end the current era of globalization (Turner, 2007).

In any case, given that there is no world government, the idea of global citizenship
demands the creation of rights and obligations. Moreover, fulfilling the promises of
globalization and the solution to the problems of the contemporary world does not lie on
single entity or individual, but on citizens, the community, and the different organizations
in societies. The dynamics of globalization demands the efforts of the whole array of inter-
governmental organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank; international
NGOs like Greenpeace and Amnesty International; and the citizen initiatives and
community action groups that reach above the nation-state level like the World Social
Forum and Occupy Movement. Ultimately, reform in global governance are required to
allow world citizens to take more part directly in all aspects of human life at the global
level.