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SUB-TOPIC INFO – International Relations (UNIT 5)
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1. Globalisation
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Making Sense of Globalization
1.3. Conceptualizing Globalization
1.4. Contemporary Globalization
1.5. A World Transformed: Globalization and Distorted Global Politics
1.6. From distorted global politics to cosmopolition global politics?
1.7. Conclusion
2. Global Governance and Bretton Woods System
2.1. Global Governance
2.1.1. What Global Governance is, and is not
2.1.2. Global Governance: Myth or Reality?
2.2. Global Economic Governance: The Evolution of the Bretton Woods System
2.2.1. Making of the Bretton Woods System
2.2.2. Fate of the Bretton Woods System
2.3. Evaluating Global Economic Governance
2.3.1. The International Monetary Fund
2.3.2. The World Bank
2.3.3. The World Trade Organization
2.4. Reforming the Bretton Woods System
2.4.1. Global Economic Governance and the 2007-09 Crisis
2.4.2. Obstacles to Reform
3. North-South Dialogue
4. WTO
4.1. Background
4.2. History,
4.3. Primary Goal
4.4. Objectives
4.5. Structure
4.6. Agreements Under WTO
4.7. Functioning of WTO
4.8. Dispute Settlement under WTO
4.9. Doha Development Agenda
4.10. WTO Ministerial Conference
4.11. WTO and India
4.12. Significance
4.13. Conclusion
5. G-20
5.1. What is G20?
5.2. Origin
5.3. Members
5.4. Works of G20
5.5. Structure and Functioning
5.6. G20 Summit
5.7. G20 Cooperation Areas
5.8. Issues Addressed by G20
5.9. India’s Priorities in G20 Summits
5.10. Achievements
5.11. Challenges
5.12. Significance
5.13. Conclusion
6. BRICS
6.1. What is BRICS?
6.2. Members
6.3. Objectives
6.4. BRICS’ Major Accomplishments
6.5. Relevance of BRICS for India
6.6. Challenges
6.7. 13th BRICS Summit: An Overview
6.8. BRICS CTI
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Political Economy of International Relations
International Relations (UNIT 5)
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Table of Contents
Globalisation
Introduction
- Globalization is the widening, deepening, and speeding up of worldwide interconnectedness.
- Hyperglobalists argue globalization leads to the demise of the sovereign nation-state as global forces undermine government control over economies and societies (Ohmae 1995; Scholte 2000).
- Sceptics reject globalization, arguing states and geopolitics remain the primary forces shaping world order (Krasner 1999; Gilpin 2001).
- The transformationalist perspective takes a different approach, acknowledging globalization but asserting it does not lead to the demise of the sovereign state.
- The transformationalist view suggests globalization leads to a globalization of politics, where the distinction between domestic and international affairs is blurred.
- Politics everywhere are increasingly connected, and traditional international relations theories, based on the domestic-international divide, offer only a partial understanding of world forces (Rosenau in Mansbach, Ferguson, and Lampert 1976: 22).
- Globalization is a contested concept, often misused, and generates intense debate.
- The chapter begins by exploring what globalization is, how it can be conceptualized and defined, its current manifestations, especially post-9/11, and whether it is truly new.
- The second section addresses how globalization leads to a distorted global politics, skewed in favor of a global power elite and excluding the majority of humankind.
- The third section focuses on ethical challenges posed by distorted global politics, exploring current thinking on creating a more humane global politics that is inclusive and responsive to those in greatest need.
Making Sense of Globalization
- Global interconnectedness has significantly expanded over the last three decades, affecting economic and cultural spheres.
- Economic integration has intensified, linking global commerce, finance, and production into a global market economy.
- Crises, such as the Argentinean economy collapse (2002) or East Asian recession (1997), have far-reaching effects on jobs, production, and investments globally.
- A slowdown in the US economy is felt worldwide, from Birmingham to Bangkok.
- $1.88 trillion flows across foreign exchange markets daily, making it impossible for even powerful governments to resist sustained currency speculation.
- In 1992, the British government had to devalue the pound after sustained attacks from currency speculators.
- Transnational corporations account for 25-33% of world output, 70% of world trade, and 80% of international investment, playing a key role in the global economy.
- These corporations control the distribution of economic and technological resources, with overseas production exceeding world exports.
- Global communication infrastructures enable organizing and mobilizing people worldwide in real-time, as seen in 2003 protests against military intervention in Iraq.
- Over 45,000 international NGOs, such as Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network, also contribute to global mobilization.
- Transnational criminal and terrorist networks, like drug cartels and Al Qaeda, operate within this infrastructure.
- Global communication has led to the spread of ideas, cultures, and information, creating solidarity among like-minded people and tensions between different cultural groups.
- Global migration has reached significant levels, with millions moving both legally and illegally, and over 600 million tourists traveling annually.
- Transnational problems, such as climate change and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, require global regulation and have led to the growth of global rule-making.
- International organizations, such as the International Monetary Fund and International Civil Aviation Organization, are expanding their jurisdiction.
- Informal networks of cooperation between parallel government agencies, like the Financial Action Task Force and Dublin Group, are growing.
- Security and prosperity are increasingly interlinked across regions, with incidents like the Bali bombing impacting perceptions of security globally.
- Agricultural subsidies in the USA and the EU affect farmers in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
- Globalization is defined in various ways:
- Giddens (1990): The intensification of worldwide social relations linking distant localities.
- Gilpin (2001): The integration of the world-economy.
- Scholte (2000): De-territorialization and growth of supraterritorial relations.
- Harvey (1989): Time-space compression, where distant events have profound consequences rapidly.
- For sceptics, globalization is not a novel condition, nor is it necessarily more than international interdependence.
- The concept of globalization differs from internationalization or interdependence, focusing on broader, deeper, and more rapid interconnectedness across the globe.
Conceptualizing Globalization
- Globalization involves the stretching of social, political, and economic activities across political frontiers, linking distant regions of the world.
- Events, decisions, and activities in one region can significantly affect individuals and communities in other regions, such as civil wars and conflict increasing asylum seekers and illegal migrants.
- Intensification of interconnectedness in economic, ecological, and other spheres, such as the spread of harmful microbes like the SARS virus and the spread of weapons of mass destruction.
- Acceleration of global interactions due to advancements in transportation and communication, increasing the speed of movement of ideas, news, goods, information, capital, and technology.
- Real-time banking transactions in the UK are handled by call centers in India, showing the global flow of services.
- Global interactions are becoming more extensive, intense, and fast, creating a shared social space or globality, seen in the worldwide diffusion of the concept of globalization.
- Globalization implies the dissolution of borders and boundaries separating the world into discrete national units, transforming human affairs from interdependent national states to a shared global space.
- Informatics technologies and communication infrastructures facilitate virtual, real-time global coordination, seen in operations of multinational corporations and anti-globalization movements.
- Geography and distance still matter, but globalization embodies time-space compression, shrinking the world where local developments can trace their sources to distant global conditions.
- Globalization leads to deterritorialization, where social, political, and economic activities are increasingly organized across borders, as seen with multinational corporations outsourcing production to countries like China and East Asia.
- While territory and borders still matter, their relative significance as constraints on power is declining under globalization.
- In a shrinking world, power is exercised across vast distances, and the distinction between domestic and international, inside and outside the state, breaks down.
- Global power can be located in places like Washington, New York (UN), or London, but it may affect distant local communities, as shown in the Iraq War (2003-).
- Globalization involves the denationalization of power, where power is exercised on transregional, transnational, or transcontinental levels.
- States no longer have a monopoly on power resources, including economic, coercive, or political power.
- Globalization is a historical process that represents a shift in the spatial scale of human social organization, linking distant communities and expanding the reach of power across regions and continents.
- Globalization differs from internationalization, which refers to interdependence between discrete national units with clearly defined borders.
- Internationalization assumes national borders remain, whereas globalization blurs the distinction between domesticand external spaces.
- Distance and time are compressed, allowing local events to have immediate global impacts, and localized developments to spread quickly around the world.
- Regionalization refers to intensified interconnectedness within geographically proximate states, such as within the European Union, whereas globalization concerns transcontinental or transregional flows and networks.
- Flows of trade and finance between North America, Asia Pacific, and Europe are globalization, while similar flows within these regions are considered regionalization.