Rizal Technological University cooperate for the common good without a central

College of Education authority to make them do so.

GE03: The Contemporary World 1. Dominance
TH: 9:00-12:00nn 2. Reciprocity
Module 3 3. Identity
Objectives: Dominance: Solves the collective goods problem by
At the end of the lesson, the students are able establishing a power hierarchy in which those at the
to: top control those below
* Determine the roles of united nation  Status hierarchy
in global governance - Symbolic acts of submission and dominance
* Differentiate Internationalism from reinforce the hierarchy.
Globalism and value the essence of governance in a - Hegemon/superpower
state; and  The advantage of the dominance solution
* Explain the effects of globalization on - Forces members of a group to contribute to
governments and understand the importance of the common good
knowing the global interstate system. - Minimizes open conflict within the group
• Disadvantage of the dominance solution
The Global Interstate System - Stability comes at a cost of constant
oppression of, and resentment by, the lower-
The Study of International Relations ranking members of the status hierarchy.
International relations concerns peoples and - Conflicts over position can sometimes harm
cultures throughout the world. the group’s stability and well-being.
Narrowly defined: The field of International Reciprocity: Solves the collective goods problem by
Relations concerns the relationships among the rewarding behavior that contributes to the group
world’s governments. Relationships cannot be and punishing behavior that pursues self-interest at
understood in isolation. Central trend in IR today: the cost of the group
globalization • Easy to understand and can be “enforced”
IR revolves around one key problem: without any central authority
How can a group – such as two or more nations serve • Positive and negative reciprocity
its collective interests when doing so requires its • Disadvantage: It can lead to a downward
members to forego their individual interests? spiral as each side punishes what it believes
Example: to be the negative acts of the other.
 Problem of global warming. Solving • Generally people overestimate their own
it can only be achieved by many good intentions and underestimate those of
countries acting together. opponents or rivals.
 Collective goods problem Identity: Identity principle does not rely on self-
The problem of how to provide something interest.
that benefits all members of a group regardless of • Members of an identity community care
what each member contributes to it about the interests of others in the
Core Principles: In general, collective goods are easier community enough to sacrifice their own
to provide in small groups than large ones. interests to benefit others.
Small group: defection (free riding) is harder • Family, extended family, kinship group roots
to conceal and has a greater impact on the overall • In IR, identity communities play important
collective good, and is easier to punish. roles in overcoming difficult collective goods
Collective goods problem occurs in all groups problems.
and societies. Particularly acute in international affairs • Non-state actors also rely on identity politics.
No central authority such as a world Actors and Influences:
government to enforce on individual nations the • Principal actors in IR are the world’s
necessary measures to provide for the common good. governments.
Three basic principles offer possible solutions
for this core problem of getting individuals to
The Contemporary World: The Structure of Globalization Page 1 of 8
 • IR scholars traditionally study the decisions • Including various such territorial entities with
and actions of those governments, in relation states brings the world total to about 200
to other governments. state or quasi-state actors.
• Individual actors: Leaders and citizens, • Other would-be states:
bureaucratic agencies in foreign ministries, – Kurdistan (Iraq), Abkhazia (Georgia),
multinational corporations, and terrorist and Somaliland (Somalia) may fully
groups. control the territory they claim but
State Actors: are not internationally recognized
• Most important actors in IR are states. Non state Actors:
• State: A territorial entity controlled by a • State actors are strongly influenced by a
government and inhabited by a population. variety of non-state actors.
– State government exercises – Called transnational actors when they
sovereignty over its territory. operate across international borders
– Recognized as sovereign by other • Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs)
states – Examples: OPEC, WTO, African Union,
– Population forms a civil society; group UN
identity – Vary in size from a few states to the
– Seat of government with a leader – whole UN membership
head of government or head of state • Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
• The international system: – Private organizations; no single
– Set of relationships among the pattern
world’s states, structured according – Examples: Amnesty International, Red
to certain rules and patterns of Cross
interaction. • Multinational corporations
– Modern international system has – Companies that span multiple
existed for less than 500 years. countries
– Nation-states • Sub state actors
– Major source of conflict: Frequent – Exist within one country but either
mismatch between perceived nations influence that country’s foreign policy
and actual borders. or operate internationally, or both
– Populations vary dramatically. – Example: State of Ohio (entirely a U.S.
– Great variation in terms of the size of entity) operates an International
states’ total annual economic activity Trade Division
• Gross Domestic Product Levels of Analysis:
(GDP) • Many actors involved in IR
– Great powers – Leads to complexity of competing
• Most powerful of these states explanations and theories
are called superpowers • Response: IR scholars sorted out the
• Not formally recognized as states influences, actors, and processes, and
– Taiwan: operates independently but categorize them into different levels of
claimed by China analysis
– Formal colonies and possessions: – Perspective on IR based on a set of
Puerto Rico (U.S), Bermuda (British), similar actors or processes that
Martinique (French), French Guiana, suggests possible explanations to
the Netherlands Antilles (Dutch), the “why” questions
Falkland Islands (British), and Guam – Individual, domestic (state or
(U.S.) societal), interstate, global levels of
– Hong Kong (reverted from British to analysis
Chinese rule) • Example of applying different levels of
– The Vatican (Holy See) – ambiguous analysis
status – War in Iraq
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 • No correct level for a given “why” question. relations are deeply rooted in historical
• Levels of analysis help suggest multiple developments.
explanations and approaches to consider in
trying to explain an event. The Two World Wars, 1900-1950:
• Occupied only ten years of the 20 th century,
Globalization: Three conceptions of/schools of but shaped the character of the century.
thought on this process compete. – WWI: Tragic irrationality of war;
1. Globalization as the fruition of liberal century of peace and suddenly a
economic principles/global catastrophic war that seemed
marketplace unnecessary, even accidental
2. Perspective characterized by • Prior major war: Franco-
skepticism: World’s major economies Prussian War of 1870-1871
are more integrated today than – Germany clear
before WWI. North-South divide winner; railroad
increasing with globalization; distinct borne offensive and
and rival regional blocs; fragmenting rapid victory
of larger units into smaller ones • WWI was not short or decisive
3. Globalization as more profound than – Trench warfare along a fixed front
the skeptics believe, yet more – Russia first state to crumble;
uncertain than the view of supporters revolution at home
of liberal economics. – Entry of U.S. on the anti-German side
• Globalization is changing both international in 1917 quickly turned the war
security and IPE, but IPE more quickly and • Treaty of Versailles of 1919
profoundly. • German resentment against
Global Geography: the harsh terms of the treaty
• World regions – geographical would contribute to Hitler’s
distinction/divisions of the world rise to power in the 1930s.
• Global North-South gap • Would lead to the League of Nations
– Between the relatively rich – Senate did not approve U.S.
industrialized countries of the North participation
and the relatively poor countries of – League did not prove effective
the South is the most important • U.S. isolationism between WWI and WWII,
geographical element in the global declining British power, and a Russia crippled
level of analysis. by its own revolution left a power vacuum in
• East Asia: China, Japan, and Korea the world.
• Southeast Asia: Countries from Burma • In the 1930s, Germany and Japan stepped
through Indonesia and the Philippines. into the vacuum
• Russia is considered a European state. – Aggressive expansionism
• The Pacific Rim: East and Southeast Asia, – Led to WWII
Siberia, and the Pacific coast of North America • In Europe, Nazi Germany re-armed,
and Latin America intervened to help fascists win the Spanish
• South Asia only sometimes includes parts of Civil War, grabbed territory from its neighbors
Southeast Asia. – Weak response from the international
• Narrow definitions of the Middle East exclude community and the League of Nations
both North Africa and Turkey. to fascist regimes in Italy and Spain
• The Balkans are the states of southeastern emboldened Hitler
Europe, bounded by Slovenia, Romania, and – Munich Agreement of 1938
Greece. • Appeasement has since had a
• The Evolving International System: The basic negative connotation in IR.
structures and principles of international • 1939 – Hitler invaded Poland, leading Britain
and France to join the war against Germany

The Contemporary World: The Structure of Globalization Page 3 of 8

 – Hitler signed a nonagression pact with • Stable framework of relations emerged.
his archenemy Stalin (Soviet Union) • Central concern of the West: that the Soviet
and then invaded France. Union might gain control of western Europe
• Hitler double-crossed Stalin; invaded the – Marshall Plan
Soviet Union in 1941 – Containment
– Soviet Union took the brunt of the • Sino-Soviet alliance
German attack and suffered the • Sino-Soviet split when China opposed Soviet
greatest share of the 60 million moves toward peaceful coexistence with the
deaths caused by WWII. U.S.
• U.S. joined WWII in 1942 – Cultural Revolution
– Important supplier of weapons and • Korean War
supplies for allied armies • Cuban Missile Crisis
– Important role with Britain in • Use of Proxy wars
bombing of German cities, including • U.S. policy in the Cold War
Dresden (100,000 civilian deaths) – Flaw: Seeing all regional conflicts
– 1944 British-American forces pushed through East-West lenses
into Germany from the west while the • Vietnam War
Soviets pushed from the east. • Afghanistan
– Ruined Germany surrendered and • 1970s strategic parity between U.S. and
was occupied by the allied powers. Soviet Union
• During this time, Japan fought a war to • Pro-democracy movement in China
control Southeast Asia against the U.S. and its • Perestroika
allies. • Break-up of the Soviet Union
– U.S. cut off its oil exports to Japan in • Scholars do not agree on the important
retaliation for Japan’s expansionism. question of why the Cold War ended.
– Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and – U.S. military strength under Reagan
destroyed much of the U.S. navy. forced the Soviet Union into
– Hiroshima and Nagasaki bankruptcy.
– Japan’s surrender – Soviet Union suffered from internal
• Lessons of the two world wars seem stagnation over decades and
contradictory: imploded.
– Failure of the Munich Agreement in The Post-Cold War Era, 1990-2009:
1938 to appease Hitler used to • Iraq invades Kuwait, 1990
support hardline foreign policy – – Gulf War
deterrence • Collapse of Soviet Union
– BUT in 1914 it was just such hardline – Declaration of republics as sovereign
policies that led Europe to WWI, states
which might have been avoided with – Commonwealth of Independent
appeasement. States (CIS)
• IR scholars have not discovered a simple • Only three small Baltic states
formula for choosing the best policy to avoid are nonmembers
war. • Western relations with Russia mixed since the
The Cold War, 1945-1990: 1990s
• U.S. and Soviet Union – two superpowers of – Little external aid for Russia during
the post-WWII era the harsh economic transition
– Each had its ideological mission – Chechnya
(capitalist democracy versus – Russian nationalism
communism). – Japan and Russia lingering, mostly
– Each had network of alliances and symbolic, territorial dispute
clients and a deadly arsenal of • Break-up of the former Yugoslavia
weapons. – Bosnia crisis
The Contemporary World: The Structure of Globalization Page 4 of 8
 – Serbia and Kosovo- ethnic cleansing The collapse of the previous global trade talks
• Somalia in Geneva confirmed this point of view. In the Doha
• Rwanda round of world trade talks in July 2008, the European
• Haiti Union (EU) and the United States urged China and
• New rifts between the U.S. and both China India to lower their tariffs on industrial goods from
and Europe the West in exchange for European and American
– Signal of a realignment against U.S. tariff and subsidy cuts on agricultural products. But
predominance in world affairs? when China and India demanded the rights to raise
– Kyoto treaty and other developments tariffs on major imported cash crops such as cotton,
• September 11 attack on the World Trade sugar and rice, the EU and the United States opposed
Center in New York it because this would undermine the interests of
• War on Terrorism European and American farmers.
– Afghanistan’s Taliban Against this background, it is time to look at the latest
– Iraq and Saddam Hussein research on global governance in the early twenty-
• North Korea first century.
• Post-Cold War more peaceful than the Cold Contemporary Global Governance emerged
War from a conference in Belgium in 2005 that addressed
• Warfare is diminishing the impacts of globalization on international
• Globalization governance and state sovereignty.
– Some backlash; resurgence of Dries Lesage conceptualizes multipolarity as
nationalism and ethnic-religious “an international distribution of power in which three
conflict or more great powers possess exceptionally large
– Concerns about environmental capabilities” and none of them can subdue the others
degradation and disease (p.13). He highlights three preconditions for effective
• China becoming more central to world politics governance in a multipolar world, namely respecting
– Size and rapid growth national sovereignty, reducing the development gap
– Only great power that is not a between the North and South, and accommodating
democracy the interests of developing countries in global
– Holds but seldom uses veto power in economic institutions. Since many European countries
the UN Security Council are losing their dominance in global politics, the early
– Has a credible nuclear arsenal twenty-first century has witnessed a gradual
– What will happen in terms of China’s transition towards a post-Western world. In
position in the international system? particular, the emerging markets in East Asia and
– 2008 Olympics in China Latin America as well as the oil rich countries of the
– Communist ideology losing hold on Middle East have created regional institutions to
young in China challenge the global leadership of the West.
– No discussion of global governance is
Contemporary Global Governance complete without mentioning China, Russia, India and
Japan. Gustaaf Geeraerts and Jonathan Holslag stress
Since the end of the Cold War, the world is that the current Chinese leaders are aware of the
heading towards a less centralized form of changing balance of power in global politics. They
governance. As the United States is facing serious recognize the limits to China’s power and are very
setbacks in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many pragmatic in pursuing their strategic goals. The same
emerging powers such as China, Russia and Brazil can be said of Vladimir Putin’s decision to assert
have formed regional alliances to create a multipolar Russian international influence. Andrei P. Tsygankov
and anti-hegemonic order. Fareed Zakaria refers to states that Putin’s assertive foreign policy is a direct
this development as the beginning of “the post- response to the growing U.S. military presence in
American world,” in which the United States retreats Central Asia and the relocation of NATO forces along
and the rest of the world advances in economic Russia’s western frontier. Ian Taylor looks at the India,
power and political influence (Zakaria, 2008). Brazil and South Africa Dialogue Forum (IBSA) as a
new strategic alliance from the global South, even
The Contemporary World: The Structure of Globalization Page 5 of 8
though this alliance still has a long way to go before it 4. To be a center for harmonizing the actions of
can challenge the unfair global trading mechanisms nations
institutionalized by the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. Japan is probably not in The role of the United Nations
the same rank as China and Russia in global politics. For the United Nations to utilize its distinct
But according to Elena Atanassova-Cornelis, Japanese advantages, it must strengthen its position in global
leaders have succeeded in advancing their national governance. Its intellectual history suggests that the
interests through the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty and Organization is the source of many ideas that have led
the active participation in the United Nations’ peace- to human progress and to agreed global development
keeping missions over the last few decades. goals, particularly through a series of United Nations
Pierre Vercauteren argues that there is no conferences convened since 1970, and more recently
symbiotic relationship between global governance through summits, starting with the 1990 World
and democracy. Because the understanding of global Summit for Children (Ocampo, 2013). For example,
governance varies from country to country and “the concept of human rights, and ideas about social
national leaders have conflicting interests, it is and economic development and environmental
extremely difficult to establish a new global sustainability have guided the UN’s work in different
democratic order. This problem can be seen within countries” (Dutt, 2012). If this has been the strength
the U.N. Commission for Human Rights which often of the United Nations, the weakness has been its
admitted countries with poor human rights records accountability mechanisms and even a deficient
and critical of American foreign policy. monitoring of international commitments (Ocampo,
The end of the Cold War has created a diffuse 2013).
global order characterized by interactions between There have been several proposals on how to
far-flung regional economies rather than nation- enhance the Organization’s central role in global
states. This development indicates that the absence governance, as an essential element to achieving a
of a global authority does not necessarily lead to broad development agenda including all dimensions
global chaos. of sustain- able development. The key issue here is
finding the right balance between representativeness
The United Nations and participation on the one hand, and effectiveness
on the other. However, the very condition that
The United Nations is considered as the generates the greatest legitimacy of the United
world's leading international organization that has an Nations among all international institutions—the
indispensable part of the global political arena. principle of one country, one vote—also makes it
According to Thakur (2011), it is both global quite difficult to get things done. The divergent
governance actor and site. Composed of universal interests, conflicting incentives and differing values
state membership and mechanisms for involving non- and norms of Member States can seriously impede
state actors, the UN is also regarded as a central the ability to move from broad consensus to
clearing house for information and actions. UN was agreement on operational policymaking and
founded on October 24, 1945 (since known as UN coordinated delivery of measures on the ground.
day) by 51 countries of which the Philippines was one As a possible way forward towards more
of the founding member. It has, to date, a total of 193 effective global governance, the United Nations
members, nearly every state in the world and Commission of Experts on Reform of the International
counting. Financial and Monetary System (United Nations,
As a result of initiatives moved by the 2009a) recommended to the General Assembly the
governments of states that had led war against creation of a new universal, constituency-based
Germany and Japan in World War II, the UN Character economic governance body within the United Nations
clearly spelled out the following basic principles of a Global Economic Coordination Council at a level
international relations: equivalent to the General Assembly and the Security
1. To maintain international peace and security; Council. This Council would be a democratically
2. To develop friendly relations among nations; representative alternative to the G20, and would aim
3. To cooperate in solving international problems and to “promote development, secure consistency and
in promoting respect for human rights; and coherence in the policy goals of the major
The Contemporary World: The Structure of Globalization Page 6 of 8
international organizations and support consensus 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable
building among Governments on efficient and Development (Rio+20), through the Open Working
effective solutions for issues of global economic Group on Sustainable Development Goals. This Open
governance” and “help set the agenda for global Working Group has emphasized, at its sixth session,
economic and financial reforms” (Ibid.). The new “that the United Nations remains the forum for a
Council would thus secure a more coherent and broad, development-focused discussion of the
effective response of the United Nations on issues international financial and economic system, notably
related to global economic governance. The in the context of a reinvigorated ECOSOC”. To what
Commission also put forward an alternative proposal extent ECOSOC will provide more than a discussion
of a body similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on forum remains to be seen.
Climate Change, but dealing with economic and social
issues. These proposals deserve greater attention. References:
However, there has been no action in this regard; • https://www.google.com/url?
instead the focus has been on reforming the United sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://prezi.co
Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the m/m/vrcobfoauacc/global-interstate-system/
existing mechanism within the United Nations for • https://www.google.com/url?
economic policy coordination. sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://home.hi
When ECOSOC was created as one of the roshima-u.ac.jp/heiwa/JNL/24/Hatsuse.PDF
main United Nations organs, it was expected to take
• https://www.google.com/url?
over the function of coordinating economic and social
sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.m
policymaking across the world and within the United
Nations system. However, it has not been able to fulfil baskool.com/business-concepts/operations-
this function very effectively, owing in part to the logistics-supply-chain-terms/15475-
ambiguous relationship between the General interstate-system
Assembly and ECOSOC. Its responsibility for • https://www.google.com/url?
international and social cooperation was to be sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.sci
discharged under the authority of the General encedirect.com/topics/computer-
Assembly, giving ECOSOC few of the powers the science/interstate-system
Charter of the United Nations grants to the Security • https://www.japss.org/upload/14.%20bookre
Council (Steven, 2012), which operates independently viewLee.pdf
of the General Assembly. In practice, ECOSOC • https://www.google.com/url?
responsibility has been reduced to the coordination sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.oe
and monitoring of social, economic and
cd.org
environmental issues and related activities of the
• https://www.google.com/url?
United Nations system.
ECOSOC has played no role in coordinating sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://www.un.
and providing guidance for the post-2015 org/en/ga/president/65/initiatives/GlobalGov
development agenda so far. Instead, the post- 2015 ernance/Thakur_GA_Thematic_Debate_on_U
process has been largely coordinated directly by the N_in_GG.pdf
Secretary-General, who sought inputs from within the • https://www.google.com/url?
United Nations system (coordinated by United sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.oh
Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), chr.org/Documents/Issues/Development/RTD
the High- level Panel on Eminent Persons on the Post- Book/PartIIChapter13.pdf
2015 Development Agenda, a global conversation
with a broader set of actors (coordinated by the Prepared by:
United Nations Development Programme), and the
Sustainability Development Solutions Network, in Capaycapay, Mharlou
which corporations play a leading role (Pingeot, Jalandoon, Ardel
2014). In turn, at the intergovernmental level, the Bautista, Maria Fe
General Assembly has merged this discussion with the Naldoza, Krisha Nhel
agenda on sustainable development agreed at the Oliveros, Ronaline

The Contemporary World: The Structure of Globalization Page 7 of 8

Santos, Sarah Jane

Checked by:

Niño Pacia Maliban

Subject Instructor

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