THE

CONTEMPORARY
WORLD
5
The circumstances and ideas of the present time
The concurrent human activity of the modern
times
Globalization:
 NOT a neo-liberal or market “globalism”
principle
 A deflection of parochialism
 Inherently interdisciplinary
 Seeing the contemporary world in a broad
lens
 Creating a “global village”
 Supranational union
 “Cultural imperialism”
 Boon and bane
Mode of Connectivity:
 It can be through economic, political, or
cultural connectivity.
 Enabled by various factors, pressures, or
media.
 The different degrees of interconnectivity
are uneven.
 Different dynamics of globalization represent
different forms of globalities.
Attributes of International Politics
 Economic cooperation
 The emergence of political norms
 Organization of sovereign nation-states
 An international organization promotes and
facilitates relation between nation-states.
Idea of Nation-state
 Associated with the rise of the modern system
of states
 In reference to the Treaty of Westphalia
(1648), The “Westphalian system”—the
guiding principle of international law:
- Sovereignty of each member nation-state
over its territory and domestic affairs,
- Exclusion of external powers,
- Non-interference in another country’s
domestic affairs,
- Equality of member states
Concert of Europe (1815-1856)
The Congress System or the Vienna
System after the Congress of Vienna
A system of dispute resolution adopted by the
major conservative powers of Europe to
maintain the following:
- their power,
- oppose revolutionary movements,
- weaken the forces of nationalism, and
- uphold the balance of power
The Rise of Nationalism
Nationalism
 Recurring facet of civilizations since ancient
times.
 The modern sense of national political
autonomy and self-determination in the late
18th century.
A Nation (Benedict Anderson):
-Imagined community
-Imagined as limited
-Imagined as sovereign
French Nationalism
 A powerful movement after the French
Revolution in 1789.
 Based upon the ideals of the French
Revolution:
- Liberty
- Equality
- Fraternity
Mazzini’s political view on Nationalism
Mazzini’s conviction that under the historical
circumstances of his time, only the nation­-state
could allow for genuine democratic participation
and the civic education of individuals.
To him, the nation was a necessary intermediary
step in the progressive association of mankind,
the means toward a future international
“brotherhood” among all peoples.
Mazzini even thought that Europe’s nations might
one day be able to join together and establish a
“united States of Europe.”—cosmopolitan of
nations
Defining Globalization
“Globalization refers to the expansion and
intensification of social relations and
consciousness across world-time and world-
space” (Steger).

It is the growth in international exchange of

goods, services, and capital, and the
increasing levels of integration that
characterize cultural and economic activities.
Silk Road (207 BCE–220 CE)
An ancient network of trade routes that connected
the East and West.
Central to cultural interaction between them for
centuries.
Refers to both the terrestrial and the maritime routes
connecting Asia with the Middle East and southern
Europe.
Played a significant role in the development of the
civilizations of China, Korea, Japan, the Indian
subcontinent, Iran/Persia, Europe, the Horn of
Africa and Arabia, opening long-distance
political and economic relations between the
civilizations.
Galleon Trade
Prior to Spanish colonization, our ancestors were
already trading with China, Japan, Siam, India,
Cambodia, Borneo and the Moluccas.
During colonization, Spanish government continued
trade relations with these countries, and the Manila
became the center of commerce in the East.
The Spaniards closed the ports of Manila to all
countries except Mexico. Thus, the Manila–Acapulco
Trade, better known as the "Galleon Trade" was
born. The Galleon Trade was a government
monopoly.
Proto-globalization
Attributed as the rise of maritime European
empires, in the 16th and 17th centuries, first
the Portuguese and Spanish empires, and
later the Dutch and British Empires.

The era (17th century) of globalization of a

private business phenomenon.

The Age of Discovery brought a

broad change in globalization.
Modern Globalization
The advent of globalization through
industrialization in the 19th century

Characterized:
-Cheap production of household items
-Rapid population growth
-Sustained demand for commodities
-Shaped the nineteenth-century imperialism.
Global Trade
The import and export of goods and services
across international boundaries.
Its purpose was the "substantial reduction of
tariffs and other trade barriers and the
elimination of preferences, on a reciprocal
and mutually advantageous basis.“
Theory of Globalization
World Systems Theory
- Reflected in readings from Immanuel Wallerstein,
Leslie Sklair.
- In the 1950s, the dominant theory was
modernisation theory; its problem was that some
countries were not developing/ modernising as
predicted.
- WST developed out of attempt to explain the
failure of certain states to develop.
- Looking at Latin America, their economies could
not compete, global capitalism forced certain
countries into under-development.
- Trade is asymmetrical.
World Systems Theory
A macro-sociological perspective that seeks to
explain the dynamics of the “capitalist world
economy” as a “total social system”.
- Mini-systems
- World empire
- World economies
World Systems Theory
Mini-systems
- These are the small, homogenous societies
studied by anthropologists. Hunting and
gathering, pastoral, and simple horticultural
societies are relatively self-contained
economic units, producing all goods and
services within the sociocultural system
itself.
World Systems Theory
World-empire
- This system has an economy that is based
on the extraction of surplus goods and
services from outlying districts. Much of this
tribute goes to pay for the administrators
who extract it and for the military to ensure
continued domination, the rest goes to the
political rulers at the head of the empire.
World Systems Theory
World-economy
- This system have no unified political system;
nor is its dominance based on military power
alone. However, like a world-empire, a
world-economy is based on the extraction of
surplus from outlying districts to those who
rule at the center.
World Systems Theory
Key concepts:
- CORE: rich & developed states
- PERIPHERY: poor & dependent states
- SEMI-PERIPHERY: the ‘in-between’ tampon
zone; semi-industrialised states
- Semiperiphery keeps the system stable
World Systems Theory
- Trade & investment concentration
- The core dictates the terms of trade
- Dependency makes the situation of
peripheral states even worse (they may
even lose their political autonomy)
- The world system perpetuates dominance
by the core & dependency of the periphery
- G perpetuates inequality – global economic
system is inherently unfair
World Systems Theory
- International organisations do not influence
the fundamental position of core and
periphery because most NGOs and IGOs are
created by core countries
- The idea that governments and international
institutions can make the system ‘fair’ is an
illusion (because they always reflect
interests of capitalists)
World Polity theory
A "system of creating value through the
collective conferral of authority"
- The system is constituted by a set of rules,
also called frames or models.
- Actors in the system are "entities
constructed and motivated by enveloping
frames"
- WPT focuses on the fact that societies have
been becoming more similar in terms of
their government and state policies—
isomorphism.
World Polity theory
- “Trying to account for a world whose societies ... are
structurally similar in many unexpected dimensions and
change in unexpectedly similar ways”
- States govern on the basis of cognitive models (which
come from the culture and society) – associations, IGOs
and NGOs and other states transmit models of how to
govern
- Worldwide models are constructed and reproduced
through global cultural and associational processes –
“models embedded in an overarching world culture”
- States modify their ‘traditions’ in the direction of “world-
cultural forms/prescriptions/principles”
- WPT is based on a totally different theory of action: it
emphasises the influence of norms and culture – not
World Polity theory
- “Trying to account for a world whose societies ... are
structurally similar in many unexpected dimensions and
change in unexpectedly similar ways”
- States govern on the basis of cognitive models (which
come from the culture and society) – associations, IGOs
and NGOs and other states transmit models of how to
govern
- Worldwide models are constructed and reproduced
through global cultural and associational processes –
“models embedded in an overarching world culture”
- States modify their ‘traditions’ in the direction of “world-
cultural forms/prescriptions/principles”
- WPT is based on a totally different theory of action: it
emphasises the influence of norms and culture – not
World Culture Theory
A label for a particular interpretation of
globalization that focuses on the way in which
participants in the process become conscious
of and give meaning to living in the world as a
single place.
World society is a complex set of relations
among many different units in the “global
field”
People are becoming aware of the new global
reality – the problem of how to live together
in one global system
World Culture Theory
G compresses the world into a single entity;
the emphasis is on cultural compression – all
cultures are becoming subcultures within a
larger entity = “global ecumene”
This does not mean homogenisation but
“organisation of diversity”
The emphasis on creolisation and
glocalisation.
Neorealism/Structural Realism
A theory of international relations that
says power is the most important factor in
international relations.
- Power as the determining currency of international
politics.
- Based on the material capabilities that a state
controls.
-Tangible military assets: armoured divisions &
nuclear weapons.
-State’s socio-economic ingredients: state’s wealth
and overall size of population