POLITIICAL ECONOMY

GLOBALIZATION

SUBMITTED TO:

MS KHUSHBOO EJAZ

SUBMITTED BY:

NAMRAH AROOJ

SEMESTER:

B.A (HONS) Semester 8

IS GLOBALIZATION A NEW PHENOMENON?

“Globalization”—lots of people seem to think it means that the world is turning into some consumer colony of America. Coke, CNN, McDonald’s, Levi’s, Nikes—if they haven’t taken over the world yet, the feeling goes, they will soon.

Defining Globalization:

Globalization is the worldwide spread of influence of culture, language, religion, transportation, communication, media, technology, trade, business practices, and interrelated government and corporate finance, as well as environmental and health concerns.

The scope of the definition of globalization is broad. It conveys different meaning to the different contexts. The reason is that the globalization is not born out of theory or philosophy but rather rooted in the evolutional and historical events (actions) of the world. The first man, Homo sapiens, migrating out of Africa, the Asian continental people traveling over the ice bridge across Bering Strait to the Americas, the seaworthy Vikings sailing out of Nordic region, Marco Polo trading along the Silk Route, and Christopher Columbus landing in America are all human adventures that began to shape the history of humankind. In this view, globalization is an evolutionary phenomenon of human interactions at multiple levels creating conditions to further develop linkages and dependencies among key domains of societies such as economic, social, cultural, legal, and political domains. Understanding this process will enable us to distinguish globalization from internationalization. To treat and interpret globalization as internationalization is to miss the distinct meaning of globalization.

The Phenomenon of Globalization:

Globalization has emerged as a new paradigm for describing the way in which the human family can relate to each other. Globalization is the increased interconnectedness of all peoples on the face of the earth. We can now more easily, rapidly, and cheaply move, and thus share, ourselves, our consumer goods, our material and human capital, and the values that comprise our respective cultures. Our ever-increasing ability to share our God-given and complementary gifts with one another holds with it the possibilities of enlarging the scope of our communion and solidarity.

The technological revolution and social dimensions of modernity have made this increased interconnectedness possible. Advancements in technology have made quick and radical improvements in communication and transportation capabilities. The social dimension of modernity contributes the assertion that because all men and women are equally valuable, they should be free from unfulfilling constraints imposed by other persons or the state. These technological capacities and the freedom to develop and use them promise to enhance the potential for integral human development by promoting authentic development in at least the areas of economics, politics, and culture. In economics, globalization broadens the free market to include many nations to which it had not previously reached. Improvement in the political arena

is recognized in a newfound permeability of borders that allows for an exchange of information that can undermine the power of abusive regimes. The effects of globalization on culture—society’s shared idea of human good and morality—can also be positive in that never in history have these societal ideas and cultural characteristics been so easy to share.

Resulting from human sinfulness, however, our increasing interconnectedness also holds great potential for offenses against human dignity. Greater economic development means a greater need for additional capital. Businesses or states can raise capital through borrowing or “foreign direct investment.” Corruption, incompetence, or circumstance may cause business or state revenues to be lower than expected and result in a debt repayment crisis that may lead to austerity measures that disproportionately benefit creditors and hurt the poor. “Foreign direct investment” may promote conditions that allow for dispersed, non-localized ownership and management of the market franchise. Globalization also poses immense long-term challenges for culture. Because widespread skepticism now exists about whether universal and timeless truths exist, cultural freedom can be abused. The weak who seem to have little to offer culture —the poor, the unborn, the elderly, and the disabled—become a burden to be marginalized, limited, and even destroyed instead of being recognized as persons worthy of respect and solidarity.

So what can believers offer to the globalization process? One of the great resources Christianity brings to the mission of ensuring that globalization serves the human person is its universality. We can be more fully extended throughout the entire world, allowing its truth to be brought more completely to the human family. That truth and the community around it embolden us to proclaim unequivocally the absolute dignity of all human persons. The challenge before us now is to use our information and network effectively to develop apologetics that will positively influence the carriers of today’s culture.

Old Phenomenon, New Perspective:

Although globalization has only recently become an economic, political and social buzzword, it's not a new phenomenon. Caravans dating back to the ancient Silk Road, with their exchange of fabrics and spices between distant lands, were forerunners. Explorers such as Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta were pioneers of globalization, facing death and danger in their quests to explore new territory.

But today, as the world skyrockets into the 21st century, globalization takes on a new meaning. It might mean sitting in your living room in Estonia while communicating with a friend in Zimbabwe. It might mean taking a Bollywood dance class in London. Or it might be symbolized in eating Ecuadorian bananas in the European Union.

A brown tree snake is only one of the many invasive alien species damaging ecosystems as a result of global travel and trade.

Environment:

It is said that the movement of a butterfly's wings can create atmospheric changes that could cause a hurricane at the other end of the world. But did you know that a brown tree snake from Australia can cause power outages in Guam.

International travel, trade and transport have become leading causes of Invasive Alien Species

(IAS). While many of the species that reach new lands do not survive in their new environments, others thrive. Left unchecked, they can transform entire ecosystems and even threaten other species to the point of extinction. Globally, the estimated costs of invasive alien species are around $350 billion.

But globalization is linked to the environment in many other ways. Strict environmental regulations in some countries lead corporations to move their operations to countries with less stringent rules. In other cases, free trade agreements prevent governments from adopting legislation to protect the environment. Destroying forests to produce timber and crops for consumers in other countries is another example. Climate change, of course, is a big issue associated with globalization, as it affects everyone, and it is in every country's interest to combat the threat it poses.

Culture:

Thanks to globalization, we know much more about other cultures today than people did in the past. It has opened our minds to other ideas and traditions, and has made this a very exciting time for our generation. However, many argue that globalization merely equals westernization. Some fear losing their values and languages to external influences and are threatened by the influence of other cultures on their own.

Trade

Trade drives globalization. Modern transportation and telecommunications have made it easier to export to and import from far-away places. But international rules, regulations, and practices can still make it difficult for developing countries to compete against developed nations.

Dumping

For instance, some manufacturers "dump" goods in other countries at prices lower than the goods can be manufactured, undercutting local producers. One example occurs when farmers who receive subsidies export surplus crops and drive down international prices.

Market Access and Regional Trade Agreements:

Countries often try to protect their industries by imposing taxes on goods from other countries. These import tariffs make imported goods cost more and make it harder for poor countries to compete in richer markets.

Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) are transnational trade deals, and are becoming increasingly widespread. A regional free trade agreement removes all barriers to trade. Unfortunately, when these agreements happen between developed and developing nations, they often don't benefit the weaker economy. Poorer countries can't develop their own industries with cheap imports from rich economies entering their markets. To ultimately reduce poverty, international trade negotiations need to uphold the interests of poorer economies.

Globalization is not a new phenomenon:

It is true that goods, services and ideas are transferred across borders at an increasingly rapid pace due to transportation and telecommunications technology. Nevertheless, this phenomenon is as old as borders themselves. For example, the Chinese invented the printing press and gunpowder over one thousand years ago, but it didn’t take long for these inventions to reach faraway lands, and the progress of civilization. The dissemination of these inventions is an early example of globalization.Columbus’s travels to America illustrate the impact that transportation technology can have on relationships between people living in two different corners of the globe. When the proximity between cultures is lessened, a natural facilitation of interdependency is born. For years to come, Europe depended greatly on the agricultural production and natural resources in the Americas for wealth. In fact, while a single event can be considered an example of globalization, the true impact can be seen by examining the aftermath of the event in terms of the exchanges that follow. With interdependencies, there can be clear “winners” and “losers.” What one group of people see as beneficial for their well-being may come at the detriment of others. While in today’s society we see how people benefit and are neglected through globalization, it is important to put this in the perspective of trends associated with exchanges throughout history.

Cross-border exchange is a key part of the process of globalization. Improved transportation technology makes it possible for more goods than ever before to cross borders, and at greater speeds. People are an example of cross-border exchange. Influences in one part of the world can be a cause a migration to another region. Like the Senegalese fruit vendor, these migrations have an impact on a new society. New ideas, customs and values become the reality of a group of people in another corner of the globe.Likewise, goods can also have an impact on society. The New York Stock Broker purchases a mango on his way to work. While not a fruit native to New York, the mango is now part of his reality. The phenomenon far surpasses mangos to every item that we come across in our daily lives. Like the classroom activity at the beginning of the lesson, realities in today’s world are no longer reflective of local resources and needs, but instead the level of exchange and interaction it has with all corners of the globe.

It’s impossible to understand globalization without a grasp of the increasingly connected global economy. The ability of consumers to buy and sell products worldwide abroad and invest in other countries makes today’s exchange of goods, services and ideas the most vibrant the world has ever witnessed. Its opening in Moscow was a huge event marking thebeginning of capitalism in Russia. The opening of the Moscow McDonald’s marked a change in the Soviet government’s economic policy regarding foreign investment. A corporation, not a country or individual, was the symbolic event that illustrated an entire shift in socioeconomic thought. At the same time, why was the business an American-run and not operated by Russians?Corporations have an ever-growing impact in society and the globalization process. Often with more economic resources than small countries, corporations are capable of influencing the perceptions of people through mass-marketing and advertising. Their economic incentives, such as creating jobs (despite the level of pay) in locales faced with unemploymentprovide an incentive for people to embrace their presence. Corporations’ power is often at odds with local business entrepreneurs and cultural tradition. The process of globalization allows for

the “global” and “local” dichotomy to meet on many fronts resulting in both.

Globalization allows for advances in science and technology to be broadly disseminated, giving more people access to the benefits they offer. At the same time, for all of the promise, there is a clear gap between those who have access to the resources made possible by these advances and those who do not. Vast improvements have been made through the dissemination of these advancements: lives were saved in the aftermath of the tsunami, indigenous health care practices have informed the development of life-saving medications, and solar panels can provide electricity to homes in remote rural areas not serviced by power grids. It is more common for Western technologies such as cell phones to be disseminated topeople in developing countries than it is for traditional knowledge of Amazonian natives regarding health practices to be disseminated to Westerner. Both scientific advancements can have a potential to benefit millions.Despite large geographical dissemination of technologies, much of the world’s population remains unable to take part in the advancements of science. Half of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars per day and are barely capable of meeting basic needs for survival, let alone taking advantages of technologies that could vastly improve their lifestyles.

Two waves…

They are enraged by modern globalization: the introduction of McDonalds to Italy — or the production of sports shoes in Thailand. Economists generally agree that there have been two waves of modern globalization, the first from 1870 to 1913 and the second from 1945 to today. In between, from 1913 to 1945, there were two great wars, a crisis of capitalism — and the rise and fall of fascism.

…and two forces

Economists also agree that globalization is driven by two forces: first, developments in technology and second, developments in policy. In technology, modern globalization has been spurred by the rapid decline in the cost of communication and transport.

In communication, the greatest single breakthrough was probably the telegraph, followed closely by the telephone, satellite relays, the internet, the mobile telephone and email.

As a result of these inventions, communication around the world has been transformed from something that cost hundreds of dollars and took hundreds of days to an instantaneous process that can be almost free.

Distance hardly matters:

Television and movies have similarly made the spread of cultural influences much cheaper than ever before. In transportation, the steam engine, then the diesel engine, the railroad, shipping, highway transport and the airplane, as well as refrigeration and containerization, have all driven down the price of delivering goods and people. This has occurred to the point that distance hardly matters for much of the world’s population. But technical change does not make globalization inevitable. Between 1913 and 1945 — a period of shrinking trade, shrinking migration and the drive for economic self-sufficiency — technology was not forgotten or lost. It

was government policy that changed: protectionism, capital controls — and barriers to human migration spread from country to country. In the post World War II period, the capitalist world took measures that we hope will prevent another such retreat from international cooperation. The Bretton Woods institutions — the World Bank and the IMF — and the United Nations, as well as the GATT and now the WTO, all were created to ensure cooperative outcomes, in which all parties benefit, rather than combat in which all parties lose.

TRADE GLOBALIZATION

Introduction:

Globalization is not a new phenomenon. To state that globalization is a new concept is to state that international trade is a new phenomenon. It has been a concept, and a major precept of Classical economists, ranging from the physiocrats to David Ricardo. Mercantilism was a prevalent economic strategy during the sixteenth century and up till the seventeenth century, because it supported the political structure and the economic circumstances of that time. Mercantilism is an economic strategy that makes the assumption that wealth is finite. To become wealthy, a country must colonize to search for new sources of species (precious metals), expropriate other countries’ wealth, and maintain a favorable balance of trade. This meant the government must dictate economic activities, internally and externally, making the country into a closed economic system. However, the physiocrats believed that government intervention not only artificially inflates prices; government intervention is also a detriment to the development of higher quality products. Reforming economic choices towards free market was the first step to globalization. Ricardo also wrote about a world where countries should specialize in a particular industry and trade with each other for the greater good. The shift from mercantilism to classical economic ideas caused the British, French, and Germans to trade openly with each other, which is a perfect model of globalization.

As free market system became the prevalent economic model, imperialism grew as an economic strategy. Imperialism was greeted with harsh criticism. Dependency theorists asserted that underdeveloped countries were being raped by the major economic powers. Dependency not only stripped the underdeveloped country of resources, it also subjugated them to the industrialized country and to their product dumping. According to Lenin, imperialism was the systematic exploitation of undeveloped countries by the Financial Capitalists, wanting to gain profits off their quasi-colony. But more recently, labor jobs are being exported to third world countries, where wages are exponentially lower and occupational hazard standards are non-existent. The corporations are gaining a profit off exploiting the cheap labor pool, while the extent to which labor is being exported is only minimal. With increasing globalization, service industry jobs like accounting and stock analysis are being exported to India and other newly industrializing countries. This is only the beginning of a long trend of job exportation.

SILK ROAD

The term "Silk Road" refers to an ancient network of trails and trading routes connecting East Asia to the Mediterranean. In some ways, the Silk Road was the first real conduit of globalization, as it connected vast lands into a trade network that spread goods, beliefs, and technologies far from their areas of origin. Trade along the Silk Road began around 200 BCE and continued on a significant scale until the sixteenth century CE. The Silk Road has been referred to as the "Internet of antiquity" by Yo-Yo Ma and in studying it we gain insight into how the contemporary stage of globalization is changing our world and our lives. Along the Silk Road begins with an overview of the network's geography and history. Subsequent lessons explore specific elements of exchange along the Silk Road: languages, goods, belief systems, arts, music, and populations.

But long before 1492, people began to link together disparate locations on the globe into extensive systems of communication, migration, and interconnections. This formation of systems of interaction between the global and the local has been a central driving force in world history.

C.325 BCE: CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA

CHANDRAGUPTA MAURYA becomes a Buddhist and combines the expansive powers of a world religion, trade economy, and imperial armies for the first time. Alexander the Great sues for peace with Chandragupta in 325 at Gerosia, marking the eastward link among overland routes between the Mediterranean, Persia, India, and Central Asia.

C.1ST CENTURIES CE: THE EXPANSION OF BUDDHISM IN ASIA -- makes its first major appearance in China under the Han dynasty, and consolidates cultural links across the Eurasian Steppe into India -- the foundation of the silk road.

650-850: THE EXPANSION OF ISLAM FROM THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN TO INDIA

960-1279: THE SONG DYNASTY IN CHINA (and contemporary regimes in India) which produced the economic output, instruments (financial), technologies, and impetus for the medieval world economy that linked Europe and China by land and sea across Eurasia and the Indian Ocean.

1100: THE RISE OF GENGHIS KHAN and the integration of overland routes across Eurasia -- producing also a military revolution in technologies of war on horseback and of fighting from military fortifications.

1300: THE CREATION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE spanning Europe, North Africa, and Middle East, and connected politically overland with Safavids and dynasties in Central Asia and India -- creating the great imperial arch of integration that spawned a huge expansion of trade with Europe but ALSO raised the cost for trade in Asia for Europeans ---a side effect of this was the movement of Genoese merchant wealth to Spain to search for a Western Sea route to the Indies

1492 AND 1498: Columbus and da Gama travel west and east to the Indies, inaugurating an age of European seaborne empires.

1650: THE EXPANSION OF THE SLAVE TRADE- expanded was dramatic during the seventeenth century -- and it sustained the expansion of Atlantic Economy, giving birth to integrated economic/industrial systems across the Ocean -- with profits accumulating in Europe during the hey day of mercantalism and rise of the Englightenment. (estimates of slave trade population)

1776/1789: US AND FRENCH REVOLUTIONS mark the creation of modern state form based on alliances between military and business interests and on popular representation in aggressively nationalist governments -- which leads quickly to new imperial expansion under Napolean and in the Americas -- the economic interests of "the people" and the drive to acquire and consolidate assets for economic growth also lead to more militarized British, Dutch, and French imperial growth in Asia. These national empires expand during the industrial revolution, which also provokes class struggles and new ideas and movements of revolution within the national states and subsequently in their empires as well. The historical chronology of modernity coincides with the chronology of globalization from the eighteenth century.

1885: TREATIES OF BERLIN mark a diplomatic watershed in the age modern imperial expansion by European and American overseas empires, beginning the age of "high imperialism" with the legalization of the Partition of Africa, which also marks a foundation-point for the creation of international law. In the last decades of the 19th century, the global "white man's burden" became a subject of discussion.

1929: THE GREAT DEPRESSION hits all parts of the world at the same time -- in contrast to depression of late 19th century, but following rapid, simultaneous price rise in most of the world during the 1920s. Preceded by first event called World War and followed by first really global war across Atlantic and Pacific.

1950: DECOLONIZATION of European empires in Asia and Africa produces world of national states for the first time and world of legal-representative-economic institutions in the UN system and Bretton Woods.--- perhaps 1989 and the end of the cold war and globalization of post-industrial capitalism which appears to be eroding the power of the national states is on a par with the watershed of the 1950s.

GLOBALIZATION SINCE THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

1. The Segmented Trading World of Eurasia, circa 1350:

By 1350, networks of trade which involved frequent movements of people, animals, goods, money, and micro-organisms ran from England to China, running down through France and Italy across the Mediterranean to the Levant and Egypt, and then over land across Central Asia (the Silk Road) and along sea lanes down the Red Sea, across the Indian Ocean, and through the Straits of Malacca to the China coast. The Mongols had done the most to create a political framework for the overland network as

attested by both Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo. The spread of Muslim trading communities from port to port along the littorals of the Indian Ocean created a world of sea trade there analogous to the world of land routes in Central Asia. This was a world of commodities trades in which specialized groups of merchants concentrated their energies on bringing commodities from one port to another, and rarely did any single merchant network organize movements of goods across more than a few segments of the system. For instance, few Europeans ventured out of the European parts of the system; and the most intense connections were among traders in the Arabian Sea or the Bay of Bengal or the South China Sea regions of the oceanic system. The novelty of the physical integration of the trading system is indicated by the spread of the Black Death in Europe -- which was repeated in waves from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries -- because the plague traveled from inland Mongolia and China to Europe by land and sea, lurking in rodents that stowed away on ships, feeding on their food supplies. The epidemics in Europe indicated a relative lack of exposure to the plague bacillus before then -- and though some outbreaks are indicated along the coast and in China at the same time, it appears that plague was endemic to the Asian parts of the system.

The parts of the system depended upon one another and with increasing frequency travelers record movements across the whole system are recorded from 1300 onward, as by Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, and others. Janet Abu Lughod argues plausibly that the so-called "rise of Europe" after 1500 followed a mysterious period of decline in the Chinese part of the system, and that in the 1300s, it was actually the vast expansion in production in China that was most responsible for the integration of the trading system -- because all roads led to China in the medieval trading world. The expansion of the Chinese economy in this period is well documented and included agriculture and industry -- and the Mongol regime in China was significant force in tying China into the world economy more forcefully.

Coercion and state power was critical in producing stable sites of trade and accumulation along routes of exchange and in protecting travelers on the long overland routes between sites. There does not seem to have been any significant military power at sea.

Exchange within the various regional parts of the system was connected by networks of trade to commercial activity within trade and power relations in other parts -- in a segmented system of connections, like pearls on a string -- and observers made it very clear that states took a keen interest in promoting and protecting trade, even as rulers also used force to extort revenues and coerce production here and there. In South Asia, it should be noted, the Delhi Sultanate and Deccan states provided a system of power that connected the inland trading routes of Central Asia with the coastal towns of Bengal and the peninsula and thus to Indian Ocean trade for the first time.

Ibn Battuta as much as the Khaljis and Tughlaqs represent the nature of the agrarian environment in the fourteenth century, and though warriors did use force to collect taxes, there was also substantial commercial activity in farming communities over and above what would have been

necessary to pay taxes. Agrarian commercialism inside regions of trading activity clearly supported increasing manufacturing and commercial activity – and also a growth spurt in the rise of urbanization.

Ibn Battuta (1350) -- like Abu-l Fazl (1590) and Hamilton Buchanan (1800) -- viewed his world in commercial terms, and standing outside the state, he does not indicate that coercion was needed to generate agrarian commodities. At each stop in his journey, he observed everyday commercialism. "Bangala is a vast country, abounding in rice," he says, "and nowhere in the world have I seen any land where prices are lower than there." In Turkestan, "the horses ... are very numerous and the price of them is negligible." He was pleased to see commercial security, as he did during eight months trekking from Goa to Quilon. "I have never seen a safer road than this," he wrote, "for they put to death anyone who steals a single nut, and if any fruit falls no one picks it up but the owner." He also noted that "most of the merchants from Fars and Yemen disembark" at Mangalore, where "pepper and ginger are exceedingly abundant." In 1357, John of Marignola, an emissary to China from Pope Benedict XII, also stopped at Quilon, which he described it as "the most famous city in the whole of India, where all the pepper in the world grows.

2. The European Seaborne Empires, 1500-1750:

a. Phase One: the militarization of the sea, 1500-1600

Vasco da Gama rounded Africa in 1498 and forced rulers in the ports in the Indian Ocean system to pay tribute and to allow settlements of Portuguese military seamen who engaged in trade, supported conversion, acquired local lands, and established a loose network of imperial authority over the sea lanes, taxing ships in transit in return for protection. The militarization of the sea lanes produced a competition for access to ports and for routes of safe transit that certainly did not reduce the overall volume of trade or the diversity of trading communities -- but it did channel more wealth into the hands of armed European competitors for control of the sea. The Indian Ocean became more like Central Asia in that all routes and sites became militarized as European competition accelerated over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as the Portuguese were joined by the Dutch, French, British.

b. Phase Two: early modern world economy, 1600-1800

The commodities trades continued as before well into the seventeenth century, concentrating on local products from each region of the Eurasian system -- Chinese silk and porcelain, Sumatra spices, Malabar cinnamon and pepper, etc. -- but by the 1600s, the long distance trade was more deeply entrenched in the production process. An expansion of commercial production and commodities trades was supported by the arrival into Asia of precious metals from the New World, which came both from the East and West (the Atlantic and Pacific routes -- via Palestine and Iran, and also the Philippines and China).Like the plague in the 1300s, new arrivals in Europe after 1500 signal the rise of a new kind of global system. In medieval Europe, there was no cotton cloth, and no cotton cloth was produced for export anywhere except in the coastal regions of the Indian Ocean. Europeans began not only

to buy this cloth for export to Europe, but to commission cloth of specific types for specific markets, and to take loans from local bankers and engage in commodities trades within the Indian Ocean system so as to raise the value of the merchant capital that they could re-export to Europe.

By 1700, European capital invested in trading companies traveled regularly to Asia on ships insured and protected by European companies and governments, in order to secure goods produced on commission for sale and resale within Asian markets, with the goal of returning to Europe with cargo of sufficient value to generate substantial profits for investors. Circuits of capital thus moved along trade routes, across militarized sea lanes, and organized production of cloth for export in Asia. This Eurasian extension of the circuits of merchant capital did not only emanate from Europe; it also included large expansions within Asia itself, not only among the merchants and bankers who financed the regional trade and facilitated European exports, but also along financiers who provided state revenues in the form of taxation. The connections between state revenue collection and commodities trades became very complex and the Europeans were surrounded by Asian "portfolio capitalists" (as they have been dubbed by Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Chris Bayly) who operated both in the so-called private and state sectors.

By 1700, also, competing European powers also controlled the Atlantic Economy; and like cotton from Asia, sugar and tobacco from the Americas arrived in Europe as commodities within circuits of world capital accumulation (see Samir Amin, Accumulation on a World Scale). The role of primitive accumulation was much greater in the Atlantic System, including the capture of native lands in the Americas, forced labor in the silver mines of Peru, the purchase of slaves captured in wars along the African coast, the forced transportation of slaves to the Americas, and the construction of the slave plantation economy in coastal Americas. The volume of the slave trade peaked around 1750.

By 1800, the Atlantic and Indian Ocean systems were connected to one another via the flow of currencies and commodities and by the operations of the British, French, and Dutch overseas companies -- all being controlled, owned, or "chartered" by their respective states. The 17-18th centuries were the age of mercantilism, in which state power depended directly on the sponsoring and control of merchant capital, and merchant capital expanded under the direct protection and subsidy of the state treasury. It has been argued that the expansion of "portfolio capitalists" in the Indian ocean reflected a similar kind of mercantilist trend in Asia during the eighteenth century. Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal, and Ch'ing empires provided an overland system of economic integration and interconnection that was more expansive than any before. Asian capital, coercive power, and productive energies were dominant in determining economic trends in the Asian parts of the world economy. European activity has long received the bulk of the attention by historians concerned with the integration of the early modern world economy, but from Istanbul to Samarkhand, Cochin, Dhaka, Malacca, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Tokyo, they were not the most prominent players in most of the major sites of economic and political activity until the later nineteenth century. Europeans were dominant only in the Atlantic System in the early eighteenth century -- the hemispheres of the world economy remained, in this respect, very different.

3. The World Empires of Industrial Capitalism, 1750-1950.

a. Phase One: the formation of national economies

Basic eighteenth century economic conditions continued well into the nineteenth century, until the railway and steam ship began lower transportation costs significantly, and to create new circuits of capital accumulation that focused on sites of industrial production in Europe and the US. But important structural changes in the world economy began in the later decades of the eighteenth century. First, European imperial control of the Americas was broken, first in the north and then the south. This accelerated the rise of capital and capitalists as a force in the reorganization of nationally defined states, whose professes purpose was the political representation of the interests of their constituent property owners and entrepreneurs. The independence movements in the Americas and revolutions in Haiti and France produced new kinds of national territoriality within the world economy, and states that strove for greater control of resources within their boundaries than any before. Adam Smith and Frederick Hegel were two important theorists of this transitional period -- both of whom took a universal few of national issues, and theorized a great transformation away from an age of kings and emperors toward an age ruled by peoples and nations.

Second, European imperial expansion shifted into Asia, where the use of military power by European national states for the protection of their national interests became a new force in the process of capital accumulation. Chartered companies were criticized by Adam Smith as a state-supported monopoly -- for the English East India Company had a monopoly on the sale of all commodities imported into England from the "East Indies," which included all the land east of Lebanon -- and this early version of the multi-national corporation expanded its power base in India with government support but without official permission. The British empire expanded without official policy sanction throughout most of the nineteenth century, as British troops went in simply to protect the operations of British nationals operating as merchants overseas.

The national state thus became both a mechanism for the control of territory within its own borders and for the expansion of national enterprise around the world. The US expanded over land and into Latin America by the expansion of the enterprise of its citizens and expansion of its military power, as the British empire expanded into Asia and then Africa -- along with the French and Dutch. In the discourse of nationalism, the "nation" and "empire" lived in their opposition to one another; but "economic imperialism" was standard practice for economically expansive nation states, and "gun boat diplomacy" became a typical feature of economic transactions among hostile states.

The 1840s form a watershed in the institutionalization of a world regime of national expansion and international economic organization -- when the British navy forced open the interior of China to British merchant settlements with military victories waged during the Opium Wars to protect the right of British merchants to trade in opium in China; and when the US Admiral Perry forced the Japanese to open their ports to American trade.

b. Phase Two: world circuits of industrial capital

The integration of separate, specialized world regions of agricultural and industrial production within a world economy of capital accumulation occurred during the nineteenth century. The industrial technologies of the factory, railway, telegraph, gattling gun, and steam ship facilitated this development; but as important were the organizational technologies of modernity, which include state bureaucracy, land surveys, census operations, government statistics, national legal systems, and the like. The result was not only the creation of regions of the world with their own distinctive economic specializations, integrated into one world system of production; but also the construction of a single world of rules and regulations for the operation of the system. This change did not happen over night, but it was clearly moving ahead at the start of the nineteenth century and well advanced by the end.

Globalization and the Crisis (2005 - present) and the role of IMF

The IMF has been on the front lines of lending to countries to help boost the global economy as it suffers from a deep crisis not seen since the Great Depression.

For most of the first decade of the 21st century, international capital flows fueled a global expansion that enabled many countries to repay money they had borrowed from the IMF and other official creditors and to accumulate foreign exchange reserves.

The global economic crisis that began with the collapse of mortgage lending in the United States in 2007, and spread around the world in 2008 was preceded by large imbalances in global capital flows.

Global capital flows fluctuated between 2 and 6 percent of world GDP during 1980-95, but since then they have risen to 15 percent of GDP. In 2006, they totaled $7.2 trillion—more than a tripling since 1995. The most rapid increase has been experienced by advanced economies, but emerging markets and developing countries have also become more financially integrated.

The founders of the Bretton Woods system had taken it for granted that private capital flows would never again resume the prominent role they had in the nineteenth and early twentieth century’s, and the IMF had traditionally lent to members facing current account difficulties.

The latest global crisis uncovered fragility in the advanced financial markets that soon led to the worst global downturn since the Great Depression. Suddenly, the IMF was inundated with requests for stand-by arrangements and other forms of financial and policy support.

The international community recognized that the IMF’s financial resources were as important as ever and were likely to be stretched thin before the crisis was over. With broad support from creditor countries, the Fund’s lending capacity was tripled to around $750 billion. To use those funds effectively, the IMF overhauled its lending policies, including by creating a flexible credit line for countries with strong economic fundamentals and a track record of successful policy implementation. Other reforms, including ones tailored to help low-income countries, enabled the IMF to disburse very large sums quickly, based on the needs of borrowing countries and not tightly constrained by quotas, as in the past.

CULTURAL GLOBALIZATION

Culture is dynamic

Culture is such a broad term, we think of values and norms people have which make them live in a particular way. A way of living in a particular community. In other words, the sum total of all things that refers to religion, roots of people, symbols, language, songs, stories, celebrations and all expressions of our way of life. It encompasses food production, technology, architecture, kinship, the way we relate to each other, political and economic systems and all the social relationships these entail.

Each culture has its own personality. The fact that we are all human does not mean that we are all the same. To ignore this would be destroying God's own beautiful rainbow made from the many colours of cultural diversity. Culture is learned. This is the most common attribute. No culture is possible without a language. It is bound up with language. This is an important prerequisite and therefore to kill a language is to kill a culture.

Culture is never static. It is dynamic. Culture is a continuous process of change but in spite of the change, culture continues giving a community a sense of identity, dignity, and continuity, security and binds society together.

The effect globalization has had on culture is immense and diverse. It has affected people's cultural behaviours in different ways. People have had to change their living ways. The loud echoing advertisement rhythms of the famous Coca-Cola drinks can be heard across boundaries in towns, cities and townships and even in remote rural areas where drinking water is a problem to get.

Globalization of Culture:

Cultural - growth of cross-cultural contacts; advent of new categories of consciousness and identities such as Globalism - which embodies cultural diffusion, the desire to consume and enjoy foreign products and ideas, adopt new technology and practices, and participate in a "world culture" is perhaps globalization of culture.

The globalization of economy, politics, and the systems of government, information and technology inevitably leads to the globalization of culture, as a unified pattern of thinking enshrined in the minds by TV channels, movies and ads which are presented as a means of modern education. Most of this globalization message is conveyed in the English language.

Most of today’s culture consists of contents broadcast by these information networks, including values and ethics, which are the mere values and ethics of those controlling and monopolizing these networks.

It is common knowledge that the predominant type of culture is the American one. For instance, 80 percent of ticket sales in British cinema are paid for US movies. The rate stands at

60 percent in France and 90 percent in three east European countries: the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary.

Figures also show that the US motion picture production accounted for 60 percent of the world production in 1944 and 80 percent in 2000.

Culture and Conflict:

Culture is not static; it grows out of a systematically encouraged reverence for selected customs and habits. Indeed, Webster's Third New International Dictionary defines culture as the "total pattern of human behavior and its products embodied in speech, action, and artifacts and dependent upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations." Language, religion, political and legal systems, and social customs are the legacies of victors and marketers and reflect the judgment of the marketplace of ideas throughout popular history. They might also rightly be seen as living artifacts, bits and pieces carried forward through the years on currents of indoctrination, popular acceptance, and unthinking adherence to old ways. Culture is used by the organizers of society - politicians, theologians, academics, and families - to impose and ensure order, the rudiments of which change over time as need dictates.

Cultural conflicts can be placed into three broad categories:

religious warfare

ethnic conflict

conflict between "cultural cousins"

This amounts to historical animosity between cultures that may be similar in some respects but still have significant differences that have been used to justify conflict over issues of proximity, such as resource demands or simple greed.

a) Religious warfare:

Religion-based conflicts occur between Christians and Muslims, Christians and Jews, Muslims and Jews, Hindus and Muslims, Shias and Sunis, Protestants and Catholics, and so forth.

b) Ethnic conflict:

Cultural conflicts that spring from ethnic (and in some cases religious) differences include those between Chinese and Vietnamese, Chinese and Japanese, Chinese and Malays, Normans and Saxons, Slavs and Turks, Armenians and Azerbaijanis, Armenians and Turks, Turks and Greeks, Russians and Chechens, Serbs and Bosnians, Hutus and Tutsis, blacks and Afrikaners, blacks and whites, and Persians and Arabs. Conflicts between "cultural cousins" over resources or territory have occurred between Britain and France, France and Germany, Libya and Egypt, and many others.

c) Conflict between "cultural cousins":

Another category that might be included in our taxonomy is quasi-cultural conflict. This conflict is primarily ideological and is not deeply enough rooted in tradition to fit within standard definitions of culture, yet it still exhibits most if not all of the characteristics of other cultural clashes. The best example here is the Cold War itself, a conflict between political cultures that was portrayed by its combatants in broader cultural terms: "godless communists" versus "corrupt capitalists." During this conflict, differences regarding the role of the individual within the state and over the distribution of income produced a "clash of civilizations" that had a relatively recent origin.

Finally, as a reminder of the toll that such conflicts take, one need only look at the 20th century's genocides. In each one, leaders used culture to fuel the passions of their armies and other minions and to justify their actions among their people. One million Armenians; tens of millions of Russians; 10 million Jews, Gypsies, and homosexuals; 3 million Cambodians; and hundreds of thousands of Bosnians, Rwandans, and Timorese all were the victims of "culture" - whether it was ethnic, religious, ideological, tribal, or nationalistic in its origins. To be sure, they fell victim to other agendas as well. But the provocative elements of culture were to these accompanying agendas as Joseph Goebbels was to Adolf Hitler - an enabler and perhaps the most insidious accomplice. Historians can, of course, find examples from across the ages of "superior" cultures eradicating "inferior" opponents.

What globalization will have on particular culture?

The effects of a globalized social value system have been in great debate over the past few years with each person bringing his or her agenda or point of view on what globalization will have on their particular culture. Though there are dozens of effects globalization can have, there are three important categories of people who have commented on the effects of cultural globalization’which are as follows:

a. Losing their family traditions:

First, there are people who worry about denying or even losing their family traditions if they accept it and other people who see great benefit in bringing globalization into their culture, and the benefits it will have on their community. But some effects stand true for most such as: the risk of losing ones cultural identity and independence, and hostility to interact with certain cultures and people around the world. Among the positive it can encourage mutual understanding, that we as people are not that different from one another and better communication politically, economically, academically.                             

In the local society when a non-indigenous value structure is introduced it can be met with resentment and hostility or a surprisingly warm reception people depending what exactly is introduced. For example, music and technology are usually welcomed because it’s for the benefit of all people when used with genuine good intentions, and not as a way to make money or expand territory.

Other times resentment can be so deeply seeded that even the slightest feeling of a value structure change that is unknown to them can cause moral and political outrage. More recently a sign of this has been shown in the war with Iraq. A lot of people mainly outside of the western world see globalization as a threat mainly because the dominate culture of globalization at this time is the western culture.

There are both positive and negative consequences of current globalization. The problem is that a lot of nations see globalization as westernization or more specific Americanization or a cultural imperialist conspiracy looking to force a sole moral code for the whole world and for non-westerns to abandon their culture and beliefs which mold their identity.

The globalization known in the other parts of the world is the capitalist side of it with big corporations such as, Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, Coca Cola, Disney, McDonalds, etc. Also, globalization is also usually associated with secularization which can cause many problems for people and countries around the world since religion plays a part in the government and way of life in many nations. But it is also the combination of judging the new by the standards of the old which is a habit that is slowing down and in some cases in mobilizing the advancement of globalization.

The positive effect can bring better education or enhanced technology and cultural diversity. Best case scenario, elements from different cultures will be enriched by globalization (which is always measured by different standards since it is constantly changing), without losing its fundamental values. Globalization can also be positive when it can merges with the local customs and traditions.

a. Globalization as the age of modern science:

The second group welcomes globalization as the age of modern science, technology, global communications, knowledge based information and cultural diversity. They say that it is no longer possible for people to be withdrawn from the world within their own boundaries to because of their desire for an "imagined homeland" of the past which no longer exists. They say it takes a balance of interacting with globalization to benefit from its positive opportunities without losing their cultural individuality.

b. Optimistic outlook:

The third and last possibility that people find is finding an appropriate form of globalization that is compatible with the national and cultural interest of all people, and that it doesn’t have to be wholly accepted or rejected. Basically, it is an optimistic outlook seeking a middle ground. Since globalization is identified with American military, popular culture and corporate capitalism, many have the perception that globalization equals Americanization. But many argue that culture is universal not just Western. Globalization is inevitable. Globalization is a historical development that is moving ahead with or without us.

 

Greater international cultural exchange:

Spreading of multiculturalism, and better individual access to cultural diversity (e.g. through the export of Hollywood and Bollywood movies). However, the imported culture can easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation. The most prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures has taken place over most of Asia for many centuries.

Greater international travel and tourism

Greater immigration, including illegal immigration

Spread of local consumer products (e.g. food) to other countries (often adapted to their culture)

World-wide fads and pop culture such as Pokémon, Sudoku, Numa Numa, Origami, Idol series, YouTube, Orkut, Facebook, and MySpace.

World-wide sporting events such as FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games.

Formation or development of a set of universal values

Sexual awareness

It is often easy to only focus on the economic aspects of Globalization. This term also has strong social meanings behind it. Globalization can also mean a cultural interaction between different countries. Globalization may also have social effects such changes in sexual inequality, and to this issue brought about a greater awareness of the different (often more brutal) types of gender discrimination throughout the world. Women and girls in African countries have long had to deal with genital mutilation as a form of control enforced by the men in their society.

The Islamic world in the face of cultural globalization:

The present situation of the Islamic world is propitious for the penetration of the baneful effects of cultural globalization, since the immune capacities of the Islamic world are not strong enough to protect it from the devastating repercussions of this global phenomenon that recognizes no boundaries and destroys all barriers.

Underdeveloped and economically weak societies cannot resist the cultural pressures and the overwhelming lure of cultural globalization to preserve the purity of their own identities and the cleanliness of their specificities. Therefore the first step to be taken to resist the effects of globalization is to encourage the development of Islamic societies at all levels, to begin with a strong support for social and economic development accompanied by the promotion of stability and the consolidation of its bases. This can be achieved through the implementation of the necessary reforms in the fields which are closely related to the life of citizens. That would enable the Islamic world to evolve from a state of weakness and backwardness to that of powerfulness and development within the framework of Islamic values and spirit of brotherhood, tolerance and cooperation, in conformity with the teachings of the holy Koran.

Since the phenomenon of cultural globalization is an integrated system of political, economic, technological and media structures, protection against its effects must be established on solid

bases and underpinned by sound principles. Hence the utmost importance of joint Islamic action at every level and through every channel in order to boost Islamic solidarity as the solid foundation for cooperation among Islamic societies in all fields. Such an action should be aimed at achieving a comprehensive development in the Islamic world, improving the living standard of people by eradicating injustice, poverty, illiteracy and diseases, and spreading heightened cultural awareness. It should also seek to boost the rational investment in human, economic and natural resources available to the Islamic peoples, as well as the planned optimal use of opportunities, capabilities and prospects accessible to the Islamic world, so as to accomplish a genuine civilization transformation.

Strengthening the Islamic world economically, scientifically technologically, culturally and educationally is the most effective and efficient means to surmount the negative effects of cultural globalization and is at the same time the best way to benefit from its positive aspects by selective adaptation to the cultural and media environment constituted by the currents of cultural globalization and by a wise dealing with its effects, changes and latest developments. Unless we take recourse to this means, we will get stranded amidst the blowing winds of globalization and be gone with its torrential streams.

Outcomes of cultural globalization:

The advocates of globalization consider the outcomes of this process positive and constructive and in the interest of the entire mankind while the opponents of globalization forward some strong points against cultural globalization. Of course, there will be some short-term and long-term problems in this way, but the final outcome will be bright and positive.

Advocates of globalization

Today more than ever there exists a global culture; to the extent that most of the urban areas in the world seem similar. The world enjoys a common culture most of which stem from Hollywood. The world is becoming more and more homogenous and the differences are vanishing away. The enhancement of global awareness, international interdependence due to international contacts, expansion of a cosmopolitan culture, etc. are all the outcomes of globalization. Human beings think globally and act locally and this is why the world is moving towards peace and stability.

Opponents of globalization:

The opponents have various answers to the argument of the advocates who maintain that globalization will remove the cultural differences and create a single, common culture. First of all, most of the opponents maintain that such a common culture will never be created, for globalization has two meanings: first convergence and second pluralism. Globalization fosters both the social movements that struggle for respect to human rights and social movements that continue racism and ethnic schism or the fundamentalist ones. Although a kind of social integration of the CNN type is created, in fact, globalization is mainly a collection of local villages rather than a single global village. Secondly, the danger of decline of indigenous cultures and cultural diversity in the world has worried a number of societies. Hence, they strongly oppose and resist such a prospect.

A Victory for Indigenous Rights : United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

At long last, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a reality. The declaration spells out the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples including their right to their traditional lands and resources; their right to give their free, prior, and informed consent before governments take actions that negatively affect them; their right to be free from genocide and forced relocation; and their rights to their languages, cultures and spiritual beliefs. At long last the world's native peoples have a valuable tool for regaining some of the cultural and physical ground they have lost over the past 500 years.

The declaration underwent a longer period of debate and negotiation--25 years all told--than any other international agreement in United Nations history. During those years, hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples were routed from their homes, massacred in their villages, had their sacred sites defiled, and their lands and resources appropriated. Even with the declaration now adopted, many of these problems will continue unless nations live up to the principals in the document.

"The Declaration gives [Indigenous Peoples] the platform for addressing the continuing abuses of human rights against Indigenous Peoples and for shaping a future where it can be realized that all peoples are truly equal."

A Unifying Theme:

UNESCO contributing to peace and human development in an era of globalization through education, the sciences, culture and communication.

Twelve strategic objectives have been given including education,sciences,culture and communication and information but mainly discussing about cultural aspect that:

Culture Promoting the drafting and implementation of standard-setting instruments in the

cultural field ; Safeguarding cultural diversity and encouraging dialogue among cultures and

civilizations ; Enhancing the linkages between culture and development, through capacity-building

and sharing of knowledge.

Conclusion:We think for globalization to truly work, everyone must be open to it and compromise, taking the good things from the traditional and the good things from globalization so there can be more

benefits instead of resistance. Like enviornmental, economic and cultural diplomacy, globalization is the exchange of ideas, information, art and other aspects of culture and life, among nations and other peoples to learn from one another.

And the more it comes to expand globally it can reach out to other countries to actually show respect for their traditions and history, to their enviornment, or bosting their economy which is sometimes met with skeptical questions about the so called true motives of the 'diplomacy/globalization'. Cultural,enviornment or ecnomical initiatives that become integrated into the life of the host country have the strongest and most lasting impact with globalization. Only time will tell.

REFERENCES

http://www.imf.org/external/about/histglob.htm, retrieved on 28th April 2010

http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/ib/2008/053008.htm , retrieved on 28th April 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/31/globalisation.g8 , retrieved on 28th April 2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization , retrieved on 28th April 2010

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:V1vhDwzQl3UJ:www.globalization101.org/uploads/File/Culture/cultall2009.pdf+globalization+of+culture&hl=en&gl=pk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESikSiBJt70Kamt7TmzhLm-GSD613RKw8kTZMKR86DeaRa672bV8y-8tdEvQ7IvSzIYADK-7ibDJN95_eiWOaFh-DZL9jQ7qiIneP_NrS2ScaIeAC8CrIT2kTpJ-cgjpYF5FQfMZ&sig=AHIEtbRiKh0FDoUiHpQnoizS8vM7Hr4wLA, retrieved on 28th April 2010