POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION Chapter III.

Unit 1

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Chapter III. Unit 1

THE GLOBAL INTER-STATE SYSTEM

Objectives
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1. To explain the effects of globalization on governments
2. To identify the institutions that govern international relations
3. To differentiate internationalism from globalism To identify the roles and
functions of the United Nations
4. To identify the challenges of global governance in the twenty-first century To
explain the relevance of the state amidst globalization
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Political Globalization
Revolutions in technology, transportation and communication, and the different ways of
thinking that characterize interdependence and globalization are exerting pressures on nation-
states that strengthen them in some ways but weaken them in others. Globalization-especially
economic, financial, cultural and environmental globalization -has spawned debates around the
world. These debates illustrate both the significant resistance to and widespread acceptance of
globalization. Although some aspects of globalization are embraced as positive, others are
rejected as destructive to cultures, the environment, and political and economic institutions,
especially in poorer countries.
I. From International Relations to Global Issues
International relations is essentially considered with the interaction of states. Such
interactions as mentioned in the previous topics, are almost as old as human societies, although
the oldest states are traced back to China and Ethiopia. The so called “modern state”
emerged in Western Europe in 1648, following the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the
Thirty Years’ War among various groups of princes and between political leaders and the
Catholic Church. International relations, international politics, which are closely related focus on
states as main actors.
The Peace of Westphalia (1618-1648) established the notion of state as sovereign. This
implies legal equality, non-intervention, and a repudiation of supranationalism as law-making
bodies.

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States are often referred to as nations, others use the terms states and nations
interchangeably, while some use the term nation-state. These terms are related, but they are not
exactly the same.
How do they differ?

II. The Concept of Nation-State

A state as defined in political science as a community of persons more or less numerous,
permanently occupying a definite portion of territory, having a government of its own to which the great
body of inhabitants render obedience and enjoying freedom from external control. In short, it is essentially
a political unit composed of four elements to wit: people, territory, government and sovereignty.
This means that it is recognized by other states as having the exclusive right to make its
own domestic and foreign policies, thus, an independent actor in world politics (Payne, 2009).
These states may have composed of diverse populations and are based on primarily an ideology.
All states have ideologies, or systems of values, beliefs and ideas. A state is a political concept.

Elements of a State
1. People – refers to the mass of population living in the state. Without people there can be no functionaries
to govern and no subjects to be governed.
2. Territory – it includes not only the land over which the jurisdiction of the state extends, but also the rivers
and lakes, a certain area of the sea which abuts upon its coasts and the air space above it. It is principally
the geographical profile of a state that is definite and its resources are enough to sustain the well-being
of its people.
3. Government – it refers to the agency through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and
carried out. The state needs an instrumentality inasmuch as it is imperative for the same to exist and
operate. Therefore, the state cannot exist without a government, which will bring into action the collective
aspirations of the people whom it served.
 It usually refers to those persons in which hands are placed for the time being the function of political
control.
 Ordinary citizens are part of the state and not the government.
4. Sovereignty – this term may be defined as the supreme power of the state to command and enforce
obedience to its will from people within its jurisdiction and corollary to have freedom from foreign
control.
a. Internal or the power of the state to rule within its territory.
b. External or the freedom of the state to carry out its activities without subjection to or control by other
states. ( Independence )
 These internal and external aspects of sovereignty are not absolutely true in practice because of the
development of international relations and consequently, of international law.



A nation is generally defined as a group of people who have strong emotional, cultural,
linguistic, religious, and historical ties. They may have live within the boundaries of one or several
linguistic, or religious background and may not particularly like each other – a nation is
characterized by commonality and strong feelings of identity. Furthermore, it is a group of people
bound together by certain characteristics such as common social origin, language, customs and

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traditions, and believe that they are one and distinct from others. Some also argue that nation is an
imagined community. A nation thus, is an ethnic concept.

Below is a table differentiating state and nation.

Category State Nation

concept Political Ethnic (people)

control Not subject to external control May or may not be independent of
external control
composition Consists of one or more nations of Consists of one or more states
people e.g. Arab nation – Egypt, Saudi
e.g. US – several nations Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon

Despite these differences, these two concepts have become linked in everyday usage, and
many scholars and practitioners of international relations use the term nation-state to capture this
linkage.

REFERENCES:

Friedman, Thomas L. (2006) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux.

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Gilpin, Robert. (2001) Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic
Order. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Nassar, Jaml R. (2005) Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Legrain, Philippe. (2004) Open World: The Truth About Globalization. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
Payne, Richard J. (2009) Global Issues: Politics, Economics and Culture 2nd edition. New York:
Longman.
Steger, M., Battersby P., Siracusa, J. (2016) The SAGE Handbook of Globalization: "Approaches
to the Study of Globalization. SAGE: London.
eJournal USA Global Issues: The Challenges of Globalization, 2006.

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Chapter III. Unit 2

THE WORLD DIVIDES

Objectives
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1. To define the term “Global South”
2. To differentiate the Global South from the Third World To analyze how a new
conception of global relations emerged from the experiences of various
countries. To identify the institutions that govern international relations
3. To differentiate internationalism from globalism To identify the roles and
functions of the United Nations
4. To identify the challenges of global governance in the twenty-first century To
explain the relevance of the state amidst globalization
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Geographers, anthropologists, and sociologists – those who study the phenomenon from the
bottom up – tell us that global interconnectedness is woven into the fabric of everyday life. It is
visible to those who observe.
In the story of “The Starbucks and the Shanty” as illustrated by Claudio (n.d.), one does
not need to look far to see markers of global interconnectedness, even global modernity, as there
are Starbucks branches in both Melbourne and Manila, New York and New Delhi. All these
branches look the same, and they have similar menus of espresso-based drinks. This sameness
according to him, represents the cultural homogenization that many critics have associated with
globalization.
Yet despite the common aesthetic of these cafes, the worlds outside them can be very
different. In Manila and New Delhi, there is a good chance that, upon leaving the café, you will
find a child beggar in tattered clothes and worn-down slippers. Walk a block or two and, with your
latte still hot, one may find a shanty town where houses are built from discarded plywood and
galvanized iron sheets. The residents of the shanties live in so-called “weak states”, where
governments are too poor, weak, corrupt, and unstable to supply its citizens with basic needs.
It is unlikely to find New-Delhi type shanties in New York, despite that city also being a
site of large-scale injustice. Harlem may be poor, but it does not have many child laborers. There
is more confronting about poverty in the global south, and the north/south divide is as visible as
the processes of globalization that endanger it. The divide thus reminds us that globalization
creates undersides.
The underdevelopment of the global south, it would seem prevents it from being
globalized, revealing the inherent unevenness of the process. Poverty is backward. It is not modern.
It is not cosmopolitan. It is not global.

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Leftwing critics of dominant economic paradigms call the forced liberalization and
marketization of developing economies globalization or neo-liberalism. This globalization led by
World Bank, IMF, and the WTO saddle developing economies with debt while making them more
vulnerable to global economic shocks. This form of globalization is likewise uneven, as the
economic norms the developed world applies to itself are never the same as those it imposes on
the developing world.
From the perspective of anti-globalization critics, the contradictions at the heart of neo-
liberalism cause and reinforce the endemic poverty of the global south. Poverty is also being
globalized.
Thus, this reveals that globalization creates both affluence and poverty; it pushes peoples
and groups into a modernity associated with Western culture and capital, while simultaneously
leaving behind others.

The Global South

There have been various terms associated to the statuses of alliances and development of
states. The term “Third World” is associated with the cold-war era which according to the critics
of the era means those states which held logic of non-alignment in their rejection of “colonialisms”
from both the USA and USSR. Thus, with the changes in geopolitical circumstances this term is
no longer tenable in light of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc or the “Second World”. However,
these terms point to common phenomena: the underdevelopment of some states/peoples and their
lack of representation in global political processes.
The term “Global South” is relevant to the study of globalization. Scholars and activists
use this term, which serves as a rhetorical anchors in a grammar that represents global difference.
According to Sparke (2007: 117), the Global South is everywhere, but it is also somewhere, and
that somewhere, located at the intersection of entangled political geographies of dispossession and
repossession. Grovugui (2011:: 176) contends that: The Global South is not a directional
designation or a point due south from a fixed north. It is a symbolic designation meant to capture
the semblance of cohesion that emerged when former colonial entities engaged in political projects
or decolonization and moved toward the realization of a postcolonial and international order.
The global south is thus both a reality and a provisional work-in-progress. The terms “Third
World”, “developing world”, and “global south” are all ways to represent interstate inequalities.

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REFERENCES:

Friedman, Thomas L. (2006) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux.
Gilpin, Robert. (2001) Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic
Order. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Nassar, Jaml R. (2005) Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Legrain, Philippe. (2004) Open World: The Truth About Globalization. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
Payne, Richard J. (2009) Global Issues: Politics, Economics and Culture 2nd edition. New York:
Longman.
Steger, M., Battersby P., Siracusa, J. (2016) The SAGE Handbook of Globalization: "Approaches
to the Study of Globalization. SAGE: London.
eJournal USA Global Issues: The Challenges of Globalization, 2006.

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Chapter III. Unit

ASIAN REGIONALISM

Objectives
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1. To differentiate between regionalization and globalization
2. To dentify the factors leading to a greater integration of the Asian region
3. To analyze how different Asian states confront the challenges of globalization
and regionalization.
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Asia is the largest continent in the globe. It cradles the world’s earliest civilizations
and the most populous nations. It also became the interest of the Western colonial powers
to possess, extending their hegemony in various ways.

A group of countries in the same geographically specified area is termed as region,

such as countries that are located in the southeastern part of Asia, where the Philippines
is located is referred to as Southeast Asia.
The “societal integration and the often undirected process of social and economic
interaction or grouping of countries is called, regionalization. Regionalism on the other
hand, is a formal process of intergovernmental collaboration between two or more states.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is an example of this. It is the set of
conscious activities carried out by states within a region to cooperate. Compare to
regionalization, the latter is a less conscious process which is the outcome of these states
organization’s policies.

The increasing interests of the western powers over Asia have resulted into
various actions. They have focused intently on the Asia Pacific and South Asia. The
United States has implemented a foreign policy shift dubbed the Pacific Pivot
committing more resources and attention to the region.

Putting forward the strength of regions in Asia, the Asia Pacific and South Asia
more specifically includes Northeast Asia, South East Asia, Pacific Islands, and South
Asia. Asia is characterized with diverse economies from the most progressive countries
of South Korea, Japan, and Singapore to the most poor countries of Cambodia, Laos, and
Nepal; likewise from the most populated (China and India) to the world’s smallest
(Bhutan and Maldives).
To think about the relationship between globalization and this economically and
politically important region, there are three views to examine.

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1. The externalist view illustrates the way in which the region has been affected
by globalization. From this perspective, globalization can be understood as a process that
transforms the Asia Pacific and South Asia. On the one hand, it can be seen as a force for
good bringing economic development, political progress, and social and cultural
diversity to the region. Others see the darker effects including its role in economic
underdevelopment and the uprooting of local tradition and culture.
2. The generative view shows how the region is an active agent pushing the
process of globalization forward. This view, while acknowledging the external impacts
on the region shows important ways in which the region is also influencing and
transforming the nature of globalization itself.
3. The alternative view shows how the region can be understood as posing an
alternative to globalization. The arguments from this perspective see the region as a
source of resistance to globalization or to global or Western powers.

REFERENCES:

Friedman, Thomas L. (2006) The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21st Century. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux.
Gilpin, Robert. (2001) Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic
Order. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Nassar, Jaml R. (2005) Globalization and Terrorism: The Migration of Dreams and Nightmares.
Rowman & Littlefield.
Legrain, Philippe. (2004) Open World: The Truth About Globalization. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.

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POLITICAL GLOBALIZATION Chapter III. Unit 1

Payne, Richard J. (2009) Global Issues: Politics, Economics and Culture 2nd edition. New York:
Longman.
Steger, M., Battersby P., Siracusa, J. (2016) The SAGE Handbook of Globalization: "Approaches
to the Study of Globalization. SAGE: London.
eJournal USA Global Issues: The Challenges of Globalization, 2006.

ASSESSMENT: Long Exam

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