How Globalization is Transforming International Relations

The global economy as a worldwide economic system began ca. 1500 with the rise and spread of commercialism and has evolved into an expanding system of industrial capitalism. The primary driver of globalization is rapid technological change in core countries and their ability to dominate production of consumer goods to the rest of the world. It involves the increasing interdependence of national economies, financial markets, trade, corporations, production, distribution, and consumer marketing. By its very nature, globalization draws attention to the economic and technological aspects of life, and to change at the level of culture or identity. Globalization draws attention to the role of transnational corporations in creating a global market and system of production; to capital markets in creating an integrated financial system; and to bodies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in disseminating a particular view of the state's role within the international economy. The idea of globalization is the object of controversy. Some of the more dramatic and simplistic versions of the globalization thesis have been challenged by scholars and journalists who are skeptical about the actual extent of transnationalized economic activity. The hyperglobalist perspective contends that history and economics have come together to create a new order of relations in which states are either converging economically and politically, or are being made irrelevant by the activities of transnational business. Economic policies are determined more by markets than by governments and, in the economically developed portions of the world, the telecommunications media have facilitated the spread of global mass culture. According to the hyperglobalist perspective, key production factors such as capital technology and even labor are globally mobile and the notions of national products, national industries and national corporations have become redundant, as have the nation-state and its strategies. Globalization has weakened the ability of nation states to regulate economic activity and govern transnational corporations. To achieve this they have moved production facilities to where costs are lowest and they adjust revenues in different countries in order to pay less tax and receive more subsidies. The hyperglobalist perspective leans towards the formation of one single world order, represented in international education by those who see a system of education, which transcends national frontiers. The skeptical perspective argues that globalization is an apology for the current dominance of neo-liberal free market capitalism or for the spread of social democratic regulation of markets. The skeptical perspective makes a contrast between globalization and the internationalization of trade. It argues that historical evidence indicates that the world is not becoming a single market but that it is the development of regional economic blocs and the facilitation of trade between countries. For the skeptical perspective, the economic era in which the Gold Standard between national currencies prevailed represents a far more globalized economic system than exists today. The skeptics point to equal or greater integration in history and that a strong nation-state is needed to ensure the efficient running of the global economy. Skeptics see globalization as a process not an end state. The skeptical perspective is more convincing because internationalization and globalization are contradictory trends, since international trade is strengthened by the existence of nation states whose policies actively regulate and promote it. The formation of regional trading blocs results in two classes of countries, those countries that are members of the blocs, and those that are not. The increasing internationalization of trade between some countries has led to the marginalization of others, such as African countries like Somalia.

The skeptic perspective is more convincing because the nation-state does have a role in a globalized world. Nationstates do have the capacity to exert considerable power over the large TNCs that have emerged out of the new globalized economy. Evidence for this comes historically when the first great globalization was ended by nation-states taking back control. The first great globalization ended as it did because nation-states panicked as a result of losing direct control of domestic markets, along with the immediate losers of globalization causing political unrest. Many people, especially the disadvantaged, experience globalization as something that has been forced upon them, rather than as a process in which they can actively participate. For Africa, the era of globalization has been disastrous, with per capita incomes actually falling. This raises the key questions that must be asked about what we have made of globalization: Does it promote justice? Does it respect cultures? Does it work to enfranchise people? Does it serve or subvert freedom? Does it serve or subvert the truth about the human person? One of the trends of globalization is depoliticization of publics, the decline of the nation-state, and end of traditional politics. What is happening is that changes in technology and work relationships are moving too quickly for cultures to respond. Social, legal, and cultural safeguards, the result of people's efforts to defend the common good, are vitally necessary if individuals and intermediary groups are to maintain their centrality. Globalization is a complex interconnection between capitalism and democracy, which involves positive and negative features, that both empowers and disempowers individuals and groups. But globalization often risks destroying these carefully built up structures by exacting the adoption of new styles of working, living, and organizing communities. Changes in the economy, politics, andsocial life demand a constant rethinking of politics and social change in the light of globalization and the technological revolution, requiring new thinking as a response to ever-changing historical conditions.
REFERENCES

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