Globalization: Causes and impacts

 

"It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity." -Kofi Annan

It's an undeniable fact that every individual on the earth is impacted by globalization directly or indirectly.

Globalization implies present-day implications of global economic, trade, culture, transboundary environment,Climate Change, bilateral and, multilateral transactions, relations among countries and, thus making the world a 'global village.'

The extraordinary development of the Internet, the Satellite, the computer, and Robotic use has made the planet look like a vast technological playground. Every nation on the earth is being impacted by the advancement in trade, having excess to superior health services, and even migrating from one country to another.

Although technological advancement has bad impacts such as environmental pollution and Climate Change as a result of extravagant manmade activities like massive industrialization and inducing harmful gases and chemicals into the air, water, and soil. For example, air pollution and Ozone layer depletion have made the earth vulnerable to many natural and human disasters such as deadly diseases and global warming that cause the sea level to rise through the process of melting ice. Ironically, these phenomena have also brought world nationsto fight back environment disruption and the Climate Change issue together as well. Currently, we are living in a world where a cruelfacet like the Pandemic has engulfed the entire human populations around the globe. Overall, globalization is a gift to humans even though it has some disadvantages too.

Globalization is mostly beneficial, and partly and intentionally harmful to some extent. For example, the Alaska to Alberta (A2A) Railway project, a proposed 2,500 km rail corridor to transport oil from Canada's Alberta province to the port of Anchorage in Alaska has long been criticized as an environmental disaster.  Globalization results in the increased exchange of trade and economic benefits that imply to the countries bound by geographical areas. Earlier, especially after World War II, the world's mightiest countries like the then Soviet Union and the USA were driven by the ego of forming NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Now we see G7, G77,G20, LDCs the European Union, the Scandinavians, the Small Island States, etc. that are working for multilateral interests and relationships.

Globalization has paved a new path of transcending boundaries based on the agreements/treaties/summit among nations and vice versa, exploiting resources of a particular country and this exchange could be beneficial to another country that lacks a particular resource, i.e. technology transfer for reducing emissions. Carbon trade and green technology are the newest innovations of globalization as far as Climate Change issues are concerned.

With the creation of the international labor market, industrialized and rich countries import laborers from least developed countries resulting in mutual benefits. Migrated laborers contribute foreign currencies to their respective countries and the rich countries benefit from cheaper manpower.

With globalization, businesses or other organizations develop international influence or start operating on an international scale.

Globalization is a vast tapestry of free interaction and ethical views that emerged in the late twentieth century wherein the world's investment, employment, production, and marketing systems have spread beyond the territorial boundaries to the international arena. Therefore, the world has become a ubiquitous society and different countries are participating simultaneously in the process of undeviating investment, employment, production, and marketing.

It is a system of interaction and interconnection that starts coordination among the governments, institutions, and peoples of different nations. The outcomes of this approach are international trade and investment, and its main supporting force is the information technology.

From ancient times the individuals have been engaged with the worldwide exchange, wherein there was no broad arrangement at that point. In the Middle Age, China's exchange with Europe went through Central Asia along the Silk Road. The advancement of transport and correspondence innovation, particularly since the improvement of steamships and broadcasts in the primary stage of the 1800s, has prompted a developing pattern of cooperation between individuals or organizations around the globe. Hence, globalization is ablend of economic cycles that involves society, lifestyle, and living standards.

Albeit most researchers have noticed that globalization started in present-day times; however, many follow its set of experiences back to the early time of the marine revelation of the Europeans, well before the New World Expedition, and some to the third century BC. Large scale globalization started during the 1820s. The term globalization has been utilized in its current sense since the new era of the 1980s.

In 2000, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognized four principal parts of globalization:namely, exchange and monetary exchanges, development of capital and speculation, access and development of individuals, and dissemination of information. Natural changes, for example, a worldwide temperature boost, water and air contamination, marine fishing, etc. are likewise identified with the advent of globalization.

Globalization comes out in the free stream and trade of products and ventures the world over. Schooling, research, venture, business, fabricated merchandise, culture are not restricted to a specific zone. Because of globalization, we are spreading our readymade pieces of clothing everywhere in the world.

Bangladesh is a unique example in exporting readymade garments worldwide, although the country lags behind in Climate Change negotiations and devoid of the amount of benefits and technology it deserves as being one of the most vulnerable countries of the world due to Climate Change which originates primarily from the developed nations. The last COP25 (UN Climate Change Conference), held in Madrid in December 2019, was designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. So much of good things and follow ups were expected of the conference, but it only ended in 'loss and damage.'

The results of the conference were disappointing at a time when climate action and concrete measures are considered urgent. The decisions about the carbon market and emissions cuts were delayed to the next climate conference in Glasgow (1-12 November 2021.). The United States, Russia, India, China, Brazil and Saudi Arabia were the main opponents of the above mentioned measures. Former US president Bill Clinton's focus on market enlargement was more than just a slogan. Under his leadership, the United States drove globalization forward through a series of bold policy measures that altered the norms, rules, and practices of international society. These included the creation of a series of free trade agreements, most notably the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Meanwhile, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was replaced with the more powerful and global World Trade Organization (WTO).

Globalization is portrayed by the 'augmenting, extending, and accelerating of overall interconnectedness'. This 'interconnectedness' varies from country to country, i.e. Bangladesh is facing challenges for exporting laborers to other developing countries due to frequent policy changes in those countries regarding labor market. Whilst Bangladesh is trying to address Climate Change mostly from the government's own efforts, and following and ratifying the international treaties/agreement and commitments of different Conference of Parties (COP), the world's developed countries are not reducing carbon emission, and instead they're urging countries like Bangladesh to create carbon sinks and applying green technologies. The paradox lays here that current devastating Climate Change scenario could only be reversed where world leaders really agree to, and take immediate actions for the sake of the planet. Instead, they're debating in the name of negotiations. 

With the innovation of different motor-driven vehicles including ships, planes, and phones, wires, web, the correspondence framework improved gradually, and simultaneously it spread quickly across the planet. In a moment one can take the information on another, can approach for assistance. The boundary isn't an obstruction today. Individuals are currently turning out to be residents of the world from residents of a specific nation. Globalization is making it conceivable. In business, the term globalization is often used in an economic context to describe an integrated economy marked by free trade, the free flow of capital, and corporate use of foreign labor markets to maximize returns and benefit the common good.Now the question is does globalization work for the majority of the world?

The anti-globalists also claim that globalization is not working for the majority of the world. "During the most recent period of rapid growth in global trade and investment, 1960 to 1998, inequality worsened both internationally and within countries.

Thomas Friedman identifies three eras of globalization in which the process was driven first by states, then by companies, and finally by individuals. Liberal ideology has been institutionalized through the support of international organizations like the WTO, the World Bank, and the IMF.

Globalization skeptics and critics point out that states remain the key actors in international society-setting the rules by which globalization continues to unfold.Globalization's supporters point to non-state actors as key beneficiaries of globalization, connecting previously isolated groups and potentially creating a global civil society.

On the other hand, globalization has the potential to disrupt international society by allowing people, goods, and ideas to cross borders more easily, threatening state sovereignty. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the world's population still spends its life in one country. Many stay in their native village, town or province. People's identities are still defined by geographically and culturally specific experiences.

Although new forms of communication have allowed us to become more aware of the rest of the world, this does not imply that all humans see themselves as global citizens. On the contrary, many of our social, cultural, and economic relationships remain resolutely local, and new forms of communication have only served to increase the depth of material and information flows along established social and cultural lines.

Globalization advocates from Fukuyama(American political scientist, political economist, and writer) to Bill Clinton argue that the increasing extent, intensity, speed, and depth of global interconnectedness constitute a paradigm shift in social organization.These inflated claims have not gone unchallenged-even by globalization's supporters. As David Held points out, there has always been more than one theory of globalization and more than one view of its significance.

Pros and Cons:There is no question that globalization has been a good thing for many developing countries that now have access to world markets and can export cheap goods. Globalization has also been good for multinational corporations and Wall Street. As globalization is a complex issue, it is necessary to evaluate the pros and cons before drawing any conclusions.

Pros:Supporters of globalization argue that it has the potential to make this world a better place to live in and solve some of the deep-seated problems like unemployment and poverty. Free trade is supposed to reduce barriers such as tariffs, value-added taxes, subsidies, and other barriers between nations. (This is not true. There are still many barriers to free trade. The Washington Post story says "the problem is that the big G20 countries added more than 1,200 restrictive export and import measures since 2008)

Competition between countries is supposed to drive prices down. In many cases, this is not working because countries manipulate their currency to get a price advantage

It also provides poor countries, through infusions of foreign capital and technology, with the chance to 'develop economically' and by spreading prosperity

Cons: Globalization generally makes the rich people becoming richer and the poor to become mired in poverty. For example, countries like Bangladesh are fulfilling the pledges of all Climate and Environmental treaties and creating carbon sinks, but unfortunately, this country is not getting sufficient funds and green technologies.

Globalization is supposed to be about free trade, but the reality is that only true globalization which removes national borders can do this. This means the rich can access what they want or need to become richer, but the poor get trapped in poverty because they don't have the means to access it.

In many developed countries today, there are large companies, lobbyists, and wealthy individuals who are highly involved in politics so that they can have a favorable atmosphere. If national borders were to disappear, this issue would become a global problem. The largest businesses and wealthiest people could hoard global resources for themselves through whatever government was put into place, augmenting the social inequalities.

According to information from the United Nations Development Program, the G20 nations consume 86% of the world's resources. In comparison, the poorest 80% of the world consume the other 14%.

We're already experiencing a leadership gap in the world today when it comes to the distribution of resources. According to Oxfam, the world already produces 17% more food than the current human population requires for a meaningful standard of life, yet even in the United States, 20% of children live in households that experience food insecurity. Globally, tens of thousands of children die of hunger annually. A world of open borders might seem like a great idea because of all the globalization benefits that are possible, but we must look at how the creation of a borderless planet would come about.

This means going borderless would create an uneven playing field that might eliminate nations, but would still create pockets of people who are more privileged than others.

These globalization negatives can be seen in two different scenarios. Let's say that production levels increase because everyone sees a boost in their economic circumstances. This would potentially increase pollution levels that could acidify the air, the ocean, and cause more issues with global warming. Or we could say that fewer people are buying things because their economic circumstances have worsened due to lower job salaries.

We often identify ourselves from our nationality, ethnicity, and family background. In a world that goes borderless,on a planetary scale, this would mean large swaths of culture would lose their identity and a loss of that culture would be a great loss for humanity. The globalization pros and cons show that there would be many benefits to a borderless world, but there would also be great challenges that would need to be solved for a workable solution in moments of crises like the Pandemic and Climate Change. Hence, decision-makers and world leaders shouldn't only think about their respective countries but for mankind as a whole.

Truly 'global' problems, such as the economic havoc brought about by the Second World War and the Great Depression can only be addressed through true global responses.The Bretton Woods agreement was one such response. (The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western European countries, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement).

Global leaders, thinkers, and actors should work together to address Climate Change which is the biggest challenge for mankind. There should be more negotiations, treaties, and commitments not for more debates, but to drastically reducing carbon and creating sinks for the present and next generations. It's an urgent issue that calls for immediate actions to ensuring a safer world. Simultaneously, benefits and ethics of globalization should reflect wellbeing of mankind equally to all countries and the vast majority of the world populations.

Sources:

lThe Pros and Cons of Globalization-Mike Collins, www.forbes.com

lhttps://virtual.ipb.pt/portal

lwww.bing.com

lWhat is Globalization by Steve Jones, www.thoughtCo.com

l14 Examples of Globalization - Simplicable

lKnowing the Environment-Hasan Zahid, National Publications, Dhaka, 2010

lhttps://www.highnorthnews.com/en/alaska-alberta-railway-clears-hurdle-approval-president-trump

lhttps://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2019/03/01/sp030119-portugal-and-the-global-economy-the-way-forward

lIntroduction to International Relations M. Cox, with R. Campanaro IR1011 2016

lhttps://unfccc.int/about-the-un-climate-change-conference-december-2019


Hasan Zahid is a Short story writer, essayist, and environmentalist (Certified Member, ECO Canada, Calgary, Alberta).