Globalization and Transnationalism

1. Globalization and Transnationalism PS130 World Politics Michael R. Baysdell

2. Globalization/International Trade • Your pencil contains: • Graphite from Sri Lanka • Mississippi mud • Mexican carnauba wax • Canadian wood • Lacquer made from Mexican castor beans • Australian zinc or Michigan copper • Rubber from Malaysia • Pumice (derivative of rapeseed oil) from Indonesia • Trade isn’t very important, now, is it?

3. Changes in the International System That Lead to Globalization and Transnationalism: • New realities and threats to international security (terrorism can’t be handled by 1 country alone) • Increased human interaction • Political identity transcending national borders • Myriad of regional and global links—trade, military • Recent Chinese-African relations a good example

4. Globalization • Multifaceted concept representing the increasing international integration of economics, communications, and culture • Creates opportunities and problems • Opportunities: spread of technologies, markets • Problems/Challenges: • Countries can’t handle content flows • Disproportionately empowers women • India example as challenge of globalization: Bangalore v. the ultrasound machines • Accelerated by government policy & technology

5. Transnationalism • Globalization a process; transnationalismattitudinal. • Attitudinal; human interactions that connect humans across nations and national boundaries. • Transnationalism preceded and has been spurred by globalization • Substantially counternationalist—undermines nationalism by internationalizing political loyalties (Parties in the EU Parliament)

6. Globalization of Communications & Transportation • Advances in modern transportation for both moving people and goods • Trade and tourism promote familiarity • Growth in ocean-going transportation and declining cost of shipping • Growth in communication capabilities--telephone service booming, 24 hour news (CNN, FOX, Al-Jazeera) • Instantaneous news and information available over the Internet

7. Impacts of Globalized Communications • Formation and growth of a multitude of transnational groups • Distant events become realities through media’s undermining of authoritarian governments • “Democratic Internationalism” • Access to alternative information and opinions

8. Economic Globalization: • Trade expands markedly • Merchandise v. Services trade develops (LDCs and NICs provide merchandise; EDCs provide services • Impacts jobs, wages, and the costs of goods and services • Increased demand for raw and synthetic resources (not just oil, but lithium, gold, and diamonds) • Connections continue to grow more complex and comprehensive. • Increased investment= financial interdependence (1998 Asian currency crisis, 2007-09 world recession caused by U.S. subprime mortgages) • MNCs contribute most Foreign Direct Investment • FDI much preferable to foreign aid (Barnett) • Monetary exchange requires increased financial services worldwide, and very large banks (good?) • Increased economic interchange bringing people and cultures together • Promotes global/cultural familiarity through trade

9. Cultural Globalization • Existence of a global civil society? • Spread of a common culture (McWorld) • English: the common language of business, diplomacy, communications, etc. • Interchange of popular consumer goods (movies, music, and clothing) • American culture dominance fuel for some resentment

10. Global Reactions to Cultural Homogenization • Mixed–both ambivalence and resistance • Threatens to erode traditions and cultural practices • But, allows for more options and choices • France embodies this contradictory reactionto American cultural and linguistic influences • But that’s supposing you notice what’s actually happening…most people DON’T

11. Thomas Friedman,The Lexus and the Olive Tree” (1999) • Thesis: Globalization is the new international system that has followed the Cold War and influences world geopolitics and economics • The world is currently undergoing two struggles: the drive for prosperity and development, symbolized by the Lexus, and the desire to retain identity and traditions, symbolized by the olive tree. • He says he came to this realization while eating a sushi box lunch on a Japanese bullet train after visiting a Lexus factory and reading an article about conflict in the Middle East • Big concept (p.232) -If you can't see the world, and you can't see the interactions that are shaping the world, you surely cannot strategize about the world." He states that, "you need a strategy for how to choose prosperity for your country or company.” • Introduces “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention:” No two countries that both possess McDonald’s have ever gone to war against each other.

12. Thomas Friedman,“The World is Flat” (2006) • Thesis: Globalization has changed core economic concepts. • This flattening is a product of a convergence of personal computer with fiber-optic micro cable with the rise of work flow software. • He termed this period as Globalization 3.0, differentiating this period from the previous Globalization 1.0 (in which countries and governments were the main protagonists) and the Globalization 2.0 (in which multinational companies led the way in driving global integration). • To fight the quiet crisis of a flattening world, the United States work force should keep updating its work skills. Making the work force more adaptable, Friedman argues, will keep it more employable. He also suggests that the government should make it easier to switch jobs by making retirement benefits and health insurance less dependent on one's employer and by providing insurance that would partly cover a possible drop in income when changing jobs. Friedman also believes there should be more inspiration for youth to be scientists, engineers, and mathematicians due to a decrease in the percentage of these professionals being American. • 10 things/events “flattened” the world

13. 10 Forces that Flattened the World (Friedman) • #1: Collapse of the Berlin Wall– 11/9/89: The event not only symbolized the end of the Cold War, it allowed people from other side of the wall to join the economic mainstream. "11/9/89" is a discussion about the Berlin Wall coming down, the "fall" of communism, and the impact that Windows powered PCs (personal computers) had on the ability of individuals to create their own content and connect to one another. At this point, the basic platform for the revolution to follow was created: IBM PC, Windows, a standardized graphical interface for word processing, dial up modems, a standardized tool for communication, and a global phone network. • #2: Netscape – 8/9/95: Netscape and the Web broadened the audience for the Internet from its roots as a communications medium used primarily by "early adopters and geeks" to something that made the Internet accessible to everyone from five-year-olds to ninety-five-year olds. The digitization that took place meant that everyday occurrences such as words, files, films, music and pictures could be accessed and manipulated on a computer screen by all people across the world. • #3: Workflow software: The ability of machines to talk to other machines with no humans involved, as stated by Friedman. Friedman believes these first three forces have become a "crude foundation of a whole new global platform for collaboration". There was an emergence of software protocols (SMTP – simple mail transfer protocol; HTML – the language that enabled anyone to design and publish documents that could be transmitted to and read on any computer anywhere) Standards on Standards. • #4: Uploading: Communities uploading and collaborating on online projects. Examples include open source software, blogs, and Wikipedia. Friedman considers the phenomenon "the most disruptive force of all". • #5: Outsourcing: Friedman argues that outsourcing has allowed companies to split service and manufacturing activities into components which can be subcontracted and performed in the most efficient, cost-effective way. This process became easier with the mass distribution of fiber optic cables during the introduction of the World Wide Web.

14. Friedman’s 10 Forces (Cont’d) • #6: Offshoring: The internal relocation of a company's manufacturing or other processes to a foreign land to take advantage of less costly operations there. China's entrance in the WTO (World Trade Organization) allowed for greater competition in the playing field. Now countries such as Malaysia, Mexico, Brazil must compete against China and each other to have businesses offshore to them. • #7: Supply-chaining: Friedman compares the modern retail supply chain to a river, and points to Wal-Mart as the best example of a company using technology to streamline item sales, distribution, and shipping. • #8: Insourcing: Friedman uses UPS as a prime example for insourcing, in which the company's employees perform services – beyond shipping – for another company. For example, UPS repairs Toshiba computers on behalf of Toshiba. The work is done at the UPS hub, by UPS employees. • #9: In-forming: Google and other search engines are the prime example. "Never before in the history of the planet have so many people – on their own – had the ability to find so much information about so many things and about so many other people," writes Friedman. The growth of search engines is tremendous; for example take Google, in which Friedman states that it is "now processing roughly one billion searches per day, up from 150 million just three years ago". • #10: "The Steroids": Personal digital devices like mobile phones, iPods, personal digital assistants, instant messaging, and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual – all analog content and processes (from entertainment to photography to word processing) can be digitized and therefore shaped, manipulated and transmitted; virtual – these processes can be done at high speed with total ease; mobile – can be done anywhere, anytime by anyone; and personal – can be done by you. • These are multiplied by a triple convergence

15. Triple Convergence (Friedman) • In addition to the ten flatteners, Friedman offers "the triple convergence", three additional components that acted on the flatteners to create a new, flatter global playing field. • Up until the year 2000, the ten flatteners were semi-independent from one another. An example of independence is the inability of one machine to perform multiple functions. • When work-flow software and hardware converged, multiple functions such as e-mail, fax, printing, copying and communicating were able to be done from one machine. • Around the year 2000, all the flatteners converged with one another. This convergence could be compared to complementary goods, in that each flattener enhanced the other flatteners; the more one flattener developed, the more leveled the global playing field became. • After the emergence of the ten flatteners, a new business model was required to succeed. While the flatteners alone were significant, they would not enhance productivity without people being able to use them together. • Instead of collaborating vertically (the top-down method of collaboration, where innovation comes from the top), businesses needed to begin collaborating horizontally. Horizontalization means companies and people collaborate with other departments or companies to add value creation or innovation. • Friedman's Convergence II occurs when horizontalization and the ten flatteners begin to reinforce each other and people understand the capability of the technologies available. • After the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries that had followed the Soviet economic model – including India, China, Russia, and the nations of Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia – began to open up their economies to the world. When these new players converged with the rest of the globalized marketplace, they added new brain power to the whole playing field and enhanced horizontal collaboration across the globe. In turn, Convergence III is the most important force shaping politics and economics in the early 21st century.

16. Evaluating Globalization The Good The Bad Prosperity may not lead to peace Benefits not distributed evenly now Wealthy EDCs exploit NICs/LDCs cheap labor Virtual colonialization Undermines diversity, creates 1 culture through cultural imports • Open economies will lead to more prosperity, more evenly distributed • Longer, more fulfilling lives for more people around the globe • More democracies • Decreasing sense of difference among people

17. Transnationalism • Both preceded and spurred by globalization • Phenomena connecting humans across nations and borders • Sources of transnationalism: • Gglobal interaction • Human thought: Stoicism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Roman Catholic Church: universalistic • Thomas Paine (Rights of Man, 1791) • Immanuel Kant • Karl Marx/Friedrich Engels • Undermines nationalism and promotes cross-national political activity and even political loyalties • Both action and identification elements

18. Contemporary Transnational Thought: • Postmodernism: A radically critical approach that seeks to deconstruct the practice of international politics • Constructivism: Attempts to redefine international politics as a social process in terms of “agents” and “structures” • Feminism: Focuses on socially defined relations in order to transform how we conceptualize gender and international politics

19. Transnationalism in Action:Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) • Growth of NGOs: • Over 47,000 worldwide • Representing a diversity of interests • WHY? • Disenchantment with existing political organizations • Response to transnational nature of many issues (e.g., climate change and human rights) • Advances in transportation and communication

20. Activities of NGOs • Gaining legitimacy—increased funding (private) • Advance many causes, moving them to the center of the political stage • Examples: gender issues, human rights, and climate change • Facilitate networks of contacts and interaction • Domestic lobbying • Participation in Multinational conferences (Copenhagen 2009) • Pressure governments to support their causes • Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO)

21. Regional Transnationalism • European Union (EU): • Most politically and economically integrated region in the world. Identity increasing (ex:EU CFSP) • Still tension between national and EU identity formation • Economic integration began, 1951, 1957 • Political integration since Maastricht Treaty, 1991 • European constitution rejected by voters in France and the Netherlands in 2005 • Treaty of Lisbon ratified by all members, 2009, puts process back on track

22. Transnational Culture • Could be path towards greater harmony • Could be path towards greater conflict • Common culture: • Language • Modern communications • Consumer productsThe Culture of McWorld: • Macro-level approach • Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations

23. Samuel Huntington,“Clash of Civilizations” (1992) • World politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. • Civilizations-the highest cultural groupings of people-are differentiated from each other by religion, history, language and tradition. These divisions are deep and increasing in importance. • The fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future. • In this emerging era of cultural conflict the United States must forge alliances with similar cultures and spread its values wherever possible. With alien civilizations the West must be accommodating if possible, but confrontational if necessary. • In the final analysis, however, all civilizations will have to learn to tolerate each other.

24. Huntington’s Civilizations

25. Analysis of Huntington • Rejected by most scholars in the 1990s • After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Huntington has been increasingly regarded as having been prescient in light of: • The United States invasion of Afghanistan. • The 2002 Bali Bombings. • The 2003 Invasion of Iraq. • The 2004 Madrid train bombings. • The 2006 cartoon crisis. • The 2005 London bombings. • The ongoing Iranian nuclear crisis. • The 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. • The 2008-09 Israel-Gaza conflict.

26. Transnational Religion: Religion and World Politics • Ancient force in international politics • Could be a force for good: Peace, justice, humanitarianism, but rarely is • Can ignite or exacerbate conflicts • Source of bloody conflict, subjugation of peoples • Crusades, Thirty Years' War, imperial era, Israel, India/Pakistan, Yugoslavia, Ireland, Iraq • Exerts influence through IGOs and NGOs: • Roman Catholic Church • History of Yugoslavia and Israel

27. Yugoslavia • Formerly part of Austro-Hungarian Empire; “Versailles State” • 1918: Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes; name change 1929 • King Alexander I curbs nationalism • Attacked 1941 by Axis Powers • Held together after 1945 by Josip Broz Tito and Soviet influence • Tito dies in 1980, no charismatic leader replaces him • 3-4 leaders control Consul of Leadership • Break up in 1989-90 • Slovenia & Croatia—”We’re prosperous, we want independence” • Germany 1st to recognize Croatia (no surprise there—formet puppet) • Serbia claims rest of Yugoslavia is under their control , 1992 • Bosnia-Herzegovina: hotbed of diversity. 3 ethnic groups, all hate each other and none dominant (31% Serb 45% Muslim 16% Croat). • 1995 Dayton Accord leads to peace • Macedonia: Independent • Kosovo, Vojvodina: autonomous (Kosovo ethnically composed of Albanians) • Finally, Montenegro votes to split from Serbia, 2008 • Yugoslavia gone.

28. The Breakup of Yugoslavia: The Aftermath

29. The Strength of Religious Fundamentalism • Fundamentalism-refers to a belief in a strict adherence to a set of basic principles (often religious in nature), sometimes as a reaction to perceived doctrinal compromises with modern social and political life. • Religion defines political identity • Can be found in: • India and Pakistan—Hindu v. Muslim, Kashmir conflict • Iraq and Iran—Sunni v. Shia • Israel—United Jerusalem • United States—Conservative movement

30. Islam and the World • Over 1 billion Muslims worldwide • Only one of four Muslims is an Arab • Muhammad: prophet who received Allah’s teachings • Koran: divine instructions and written word of Muhammad • Multiple interpretations of “jihad” • Triumphant beginning • Conflict with Christian powers • Domination of Muslims by others

31. Islam and Nationalism • “Muslim pride” • Pan-Arab (ummah) sentiment • Palestinian Liberation Organization • Yet much diversity within Islam—ummah unlikely • Iraq-Iran war (conflict between countries) • Nationalism still prevalent • Sectarianism: Shiites versus Sunnis • Traditionalists (Iran) versus secularists (Morocco) • Ethnic differences within Islam

32. Islam and the Non-Islamic World • Deep-seated anti-Western sentiments • Ex: Iran Friday Prayers Chant • Fueled by Iraq war, Western support of autocratic and repressive regimes in the Middle East, and Israeli-Palestinian conflict • Perceptions of Western secular threats to Islamic cultural traditions and mores • People more open to Western culture than leaders (rural Iran)

33. Transnational Movements: Women in the World • Women are underrepresented in every country. In NO country are women socioeconomically or politically equal • Gap greater in LDCs • Differing worldviews and conceptions of peace and security • Agenda for change • Increase women's political participation • Improve women's reality • Education: Impact of women's illiteracy on entire society

34. Women are underrepresented in world politics • Conceptual differences between male and female points of view • Differing views of politics • Peace • Security • Agenda for change • Increase women's political participation. • Improve women's reality • Education: Impact of women's illiteracy on entire society

35. Goals of the Transnational Women’s Movement • Transformation nationally and internationally • More than simply a drive for power • Gender equality benefits society as a whole

36. Programs and Organization of the Transnational Women’s Movement • Explosion of information and coordination efforts on the Internet • Global conferences: • UN Conference on Population and Development (UNCPD) • Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing (WCW) • Beijing+5 Conference

37. Impact of Women in Politics • Cultural differences among women narrowing • Advancement of women in politics • UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Urges Member States to ensure increased representation of women at all decision-making levels in national, regional and international institutions and mechanisms for the prevention, management, and resolution of conflict

38. Transnationalism Tomorrow • Common culture versus nationalism • English predominant • Lasting impacts of globalization and transnational movements on efforts to address climate change, protecting human rights, and promoting public health.

39. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, students should be able to: • 1. Explain the evolution of transnational thought • 2. Define the concepts of globalization and transnationalism. • 3. Identify the various aspects of globalization and indicate how they relate to transnationalism. • 4. Analyze the changes in transportation, communications, international economic exchange, and cultural amalgamation, which have promoted globalization. • 5. Explain the arguments for economic and cultural globalization as well as the concerns about economic and cultural globalization. • 6. Comment knowledgably on the growth, activity, and transnational impact of nongovernmental organizations. • 7. Indicate the progress of regional transnationalism in Europe. • 8. Examine the cohesive and divisive effects of transnational culture. • 9. Discuss the transnational elements of religion. • 10. Examine both the positive and negative roles of religion in world politics. • 11. Analyze, as a case study, the role of Islam in world politics. • 12. Identify transnational activity of the women’s movement and trace its progress. • 13. Identify barriers to transnationalism in the future.