LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this module, you should have been able to:
1. Infer into the relevance of the State amid Globalization;
2. Classify the different Institutions that govern International Relations;
3. Differentiate between Globalization and Globalism;
4. Understand the role, function and impact of infomationalism in the 21 st century.

LECTURE NOTES

The Relevance of the State amid Globalization

The state is a distinctive political community with its own set of rules and practices and that is
more or less separate from other communities.
Four elements of state; political concept
 People

The first element is a permanent population. Permanent presence of people in one location.
 Territory

Has clear boundaries

 Government
Regulates relations among its people and with other states;
The state is formally constituted sovereign political structure encompassing people, territory,
and its institutions;
Maintain its autonomy from other states.

 Sovereignty

Autonomy from others states;

Internal and external sovereignty

Nation:
 Refers to people more than any kind of formal territorial boundaries or institutions;
 Collective identity grounded on shared history and culture;
 Shared collective notion of democracy, history, and collective identity;;
 Cultural concept

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Nation-State Concept:
 Territory bounded sovereign institution that governs individuals sharing a collective history,
identity, and culture;
 Greater demands being placed on the state because of four sources of collective insecurity:
Terrorism, economic globalization, leading to problems such as outsourcing and pressures
toward downsizing, as well as the current economic crisis, threats to national identity due to
immigration, and the spread.
 Other argument in support of the nation-state is that global processes of various kinds are not
as powerful as many believe.

Institution That Govern International Relations

There are several international organizations that governments of countries around the world
and individuals participate in. These include the United Nations, the international court of Justice,
NAFTA, and NATO. There are also non-governmental organizational organizations promoting social
and economic growth.
Peace Treaties and Military Alliances: The UN and NATO
The United Nations (UN) is one of the leading political organizations in the world where
nation-state meets and deliberate.
The United Nation (UN) was coined by former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942
(United Nations, 2011). Its operations began on October 24, 1945 with 50 representatives from
different countries.

Generally, it functions in four areas:

 Military Issues
 Economic issues
 Environmental Issues
 Human protection

The United Nations (UN) is made up of close to 200 countries from around the
world,193 members to be exact , with the Republic of Sudan as its latest member
(United Nations, 2011).

* Its headquarters in New York

*The General Assembly is the gathering of all these countries.
*Maintaining peace and security became the central mission of the UN
* Working to prevent conflict;
* Helping parties in conflict make peace;
* Peacekeeping;
* Creating the conditions to allow peace to hold and flourish;
* Can intervene in the civil wars of less developed countries, through “election and human
rights monitoring, disarmament, and even the assumption of state functions” (Weiss and Zach, 2007,
p.1219);
*In terms of economic issues, the main focus of the UN is the reduction of global inequality;
*The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cover a range of concerns for the improvement of
all aspects of life. Sustainable development encompasses economic prosperity, social-well-being, and
environmental protection.

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* Environmental issues, such as pollution and hazardous wastes, are addressed through the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The increasing rate of greenhouse gas emission,
rising sea level, and occurrence of extreme weather patterns are the effects of climate change.
* As a response, the UN’s intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) took efforts that can
mitigate climate change like assessment of climate science, facilitation of climate agreements, and
giving assistance to countries to reduce emissions (UN, 2011).
* The International Court of Justice (ICJ), refers to as The World’s Court, located in Netherlands,
Hague.
*Where countries settle their dispute;
*Where war criminal and rulers who have done terrible things to their people can be put to
trial for their crimes.
* Other courts such as International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Tribunal for
the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).
*UN promotes human rights through different organization and mechanism.
*Since 1948, Human Right has been brought to the realm of International Law .
* Reflected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
*Mechanism such as: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the Human
Rights Council, human rights treaty bodies, the UN Development Group’s Human Right
Mainstreaming Mechanism (UNDG-HRM), and the Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide
and the Responsibility to Protect (UN, 2011).
*Legal Instruments which consists of three legal documents like: the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Convention on Economic, Social, and Cultural
Rights.
*Democracy and interdependent with development and respect for all human rights.

*The Security Council is composed of:

*The United States, Britain, Russia, China, and France;
* 10 additional countries join the permanent members for two year terms.
* Can pass sanction;
* Can send troops or observers;
* Worst scenario, they can use military force;
*Members have Veto power
*UNICEF or the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund
*Primary goal is to help children around the world
* They collect funds to distribute emergency relief from famine and poverty and diseases.
*Provides education programs in areas where there are no schools.
*They operate semi-independently and rely on fundraising.

Non-Governmental Organization (NGOs)

*Red Cross (Red Crescent in Muslim countries) a non- governmental organization and is not
tied to any country.

*Allows it to operate freely throughout the world.

*Provide relief such as food, water, and medical supplies whose homes or towns were
destroyed by disaster or war.
Monitor the treatment of prisoner of wars and to conflicts to make sure that no war crimes are
taking place.
*Neutral
*Other NGOs’: Doctors without borders, Oxfam fights famine and disease; Amnesty
International; Save the Children

Global Economic associations: The WTO and NAFTA

*WTO- 162 countries and was created with the goal of increasing free trade.
*NAFTA – Three countries USA, Canada , and Mexico trade freely without taxing each other.

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Globalization and Globalism
*Globalization – The “increase or decline in the degree of globalism” (Nye, 2002, p.1)
*Globalism – Refers to the network of connections that transcends distances of different
countries in the world. It links among countries and people better associated with globalism while
the speed in which they become linked with one another is globalization.
 The contemporary world is characterized by being connected through the internet, modern
transportation, and advanced communication technologies
 Societies have always been connected, the difference lies on the fact that connections are done
it different ways.

“Thickness,” differentiate globalism with that of globalization; while globalism is thin, its becoming
thickness becomes globalization.
 Connections are more dynamic and faster was in globalization
 Globa
 Global trade today has reached a greater number of people around the world through internet,
and World Wide Web.

Globalism and globalization are often understood in terms of economy, Nye (2002), gave “four
distinct dimensions of globalism: economic, military, environment, and social” (p.2).
*The enormous speed of potential conflict and threat of nuclear was is an example of military
globalism.
*In terms of environmental, global warming continues to accelerate.
*Social and cultural globalism, “involves movements of ideas, information, images, and people
who carry ideas and information with the” (Nye, 2002, p.2)
Informationalism
*Globalism is tied to the notion of networks. Castells (200), “networks constitute the
fundamental pattern of life, of all kinds of life” (p.3).
*Technological paradigm, associated with computer science and modern telecommunication,
that replaces industrialism is called informationalism (Castells, 2004). These are:
*Technology
* The media and the internet
*Technology, media, and internet are three most cutting-edge aspects of the social
world in general and globalization in particular” (Ritzer, 2015, p.134).
*information and knowledge, which is clearly immaterial goods, becomes central in the
contemporary world (Hardt & Negri, 2000).

Mcluhan and Fiore (2005) argued that in the new Media Age, the importance lies in the medium, the
way in which the message is transmitted, nor necessarily in the content presented through the
medium.
*Television, radios, and newspapers have been shaping “individual subjectivity and culture,
not only locally but globally” (Ritzer, 2015, p.143).
French social theorist Guy Debord (1994) emphasized in his idea of media spectacle the sophistication
and ubiquity of spectacular visual in televisions
*Internet binds online networking, spam, and computer viruses. Internet is the mark of the
contemporary world.
*According to Ritzer (2015), “The internet has prompted a flat world thesis; anyone can be
involved in it, at least theoretically” (p.150).
*Barriers in the usage of internet: lack of electricity, illiteracy, weak financial systems, and
government regulations.

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Activity: Collecting Posts, Connecting the World
We live in a world where we are surrounded by vast amount of information. It is around us.
We can get information from books, television, newspaper, and online websites.
Moreover, our collective learning could also be aided by modern technology. Social media is
one of the ways in which information is exchanged today. In this activity, we will realize how
connected we are in terms of the posts that we see in the web. Although we do not have a face-to-face
interaction, we could somehow relate, with others in this virtual space- the internet-which largely
shaped the flow of information in the contemporary world.
1. Using your social media account (e.g. Facebook or twitter accounts), browse your home
page and observe the posts of your friends.
2. Choose and list down at least 30 randomly selected posts. The names of your friends can be
excluded.
3. Group the posts according to theme. Some of the themes maybe about a product, an
educational post, a movie, an opinion, a religious verse, or a status about one’s personal
life. Feel free to construct your own title for the posts that you are going to group together.
4. Share the themes you have created with a classmate and answer the following questions:
a. Which theme has the most number of posts?
b. Which post has the most number of shares?
c. What are the common themes that you and your classmate have identified?
d. Have you posted anything in the past that is similar with the posts you have listed
down?

Global Citizenship
Citizenship is associated with rights and obligations (e.g., the right to vote, and the obligation
to pay taxes.
It has to do with the attitudes, willing to engage and spend time, effort to the community
Caecilia Johanna van Peski (as cites in Baraldi, 2012) defined global citizenship “as a moral
and ethical disposition that can guide the understanding of individuals or groups of local and global
contexts, and remind them of their relative responsibilities with various communities.” “ global
citizens might be the new type of people that can travel within these various boundaries and
somehow still make sense of the world” (Baraldi, 2012).
Global citizens are the glue which binds local communities together in an increasingly
globalized world.
There are three approaches to global economic resistance:
Trade Protectionism – involves the systematic government intervention in foreign trade
through tariffs and non-tariffs barriers in order to encourage domestic producers and deter their
foreign competitors (McAleese, 2007).
It remains popular since it shields the comestic economy from systemic shocks.
Fair Trade – Emerged as a counter to neoliberal “free trade” principles ( Nicholls and
Opal, 2005). It aims at a more moral and equitable global economic system in which the market price
is not set by the market; instead, instead it is negotiated transparently by both producers and
consumers. It has merely limited acceptance among producers (Ritzer, 2015).
Its ability to supply and applicability to manufacture products are also doubted.
Helping the bottom billion based on Collier (2007). One measure is aid, international norms
and standards can be adapted to the needs of the bottom billion; reduction of trade barriers will
reduce the economic marginalization of people and nations.
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Political globalization requires accountability (Germain, 2004) and transparency are key issues.
Political organizations, at different levels, should be more accountable for their actions because
they are surrounded by an “ocean of opacity” (Holzer and Holzer, 2006, p. 336).
Increased transparency has been aided by various mechanisms such as transnational justice
systems, international tribunals, civil society, and transparency international.
The World Social Forum (WSF) is centered in addressing the lack of democracy in economic
and political affairs (Fisher and Ponniah, 2003). A significant influence on WSF has been that of
cyberactivism which is based on the “Cultural logic of networking” (Juris, 2005) and “virtual
movements”
Cyberpublic was formed as a protest against violence, discrimination, and hatred experienced.
Global Huaren which according to Ritzer ( 2015) “ became an interesting global watchdog for Chinese
interests” (p.307).
There is no single globalization, the future is also multi-dimensional. Some foresee the
continuing expansion of globalization both in general as well as in more specific globalization. Others
have a far more pessimistic vision of “Mad Max” scenarios that could end the current era of
globalization (Turner, 2007).

REFERENCES

Aldama, P. K. (2018). The Contemporary World. Manila: Rex Book Store.

Lisandro E. Claudio, P. N. (2018). The Contemporary World. Quezon CIty: C & E
Publishing Inc.

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