“The Contemporary World”

Lesson 1: Concept of Globalization

What is Globalization? – is a term used to describe the changes in societies and the world economy that
are the result of dramatically increased trade and cultural exchange.

- Means the speed up of movements and exchanges (of human beings, goods, services and
capital, technologies or cultural practices) all over the planet.
- Is the process by which the world, previously isolated through physical and technological
distance becomes increasingly interconnected.
- It is manifested by the increase in interaction between people around the world that involves
the sharing

Types of Globalization:

1. Economic Globalization – movement of goods, capital, services, technology and information.

2. Cultural Globalization – It refers to the interpretation of cultures. Nations adopt principles,
beliefs, and costumes of other nations. Losing their unique culture to a unique, globalized and
supra-culture.
3. Political Globalization – It refers to the growth of political cooperation between countries.

Lesson 2: Globalization of World Economy

Internal Momentary Fund (IMF) – regards to “economic globalization”. Human innovation and
technological progress.

- Characterized by the increasing interrogation of economies around the world through the
movement of goods, services and capital across the borders. These changes are products of
people, organization, and technologies.

Advantages of Globalization

 Education – spread of education. One can move out from the home country for better
opportunities elsewhere.
 Product Quality – enhance to retain customer. Customers may compromise with the price range
but not with quality of the product.
 Cheaper Prices – Fierce competition in the market.
 Communication – Information is easily accessible from almost every corner of the world.
Circulation of information is no longer a tedious task, and can happen in secs.
 Transportation – Various modes of transportation available.
 GPD – (Gross Domestic Product) Money value of the final product.
 Free Trade – Country does not levy taxes, duties, subsidies or quota on the import and exporter
goods or services.
 Travel and Tourism – Promoted tourism.
 Growth of multinational corporations – MNC in farms, mines, and factories.
Disadvantages of Globalization

 Uneven Wealth Distribution – rich are getting richer, poor are getting poorer.
 Environment Degradation – Climate change is a serious threat.
 Conflicts – rise of terrorism and other forms of violence.
 Cut Throat Competiton – Intense market competition.
 Environmental and Health Problems
 -
 -

Internal Trading Systems

 Silk Road – oldest known international trade route (China to what is now Middle east and to
Europe.
 Galleon Trade – 1571 connected to Manila Philippines and Acapulco Mexico. First time that the
Americans were directly connected to Asian trading routes.
 Mercantilism – Galleon trade was part of the Mercan. Made by Europe to boost their countrys
economy.
 Gold Trading – Open trade systems when the UK, US and other European nations adopted gold
standard.
 Great Depression – Global Economic Crisis during 1920 to 1930. The worst and longest recession
ever experienced by the Western World.
 Flat Currencies – currencies that are not backed by precious metals.

LESSON 3: State and Nations

State – refers to the country and its government.

4 Attributes of State
1. It exercise authority over a specific population, called its citizens. (People)
2. It governs a specific territory. (Territory)
3. It has a structure of government that craft various rules that people follow. (Government)
4. It has sovereignty over its territory. (Sovereignty)
Sovereignty refers to internal and external authority.
a. Internally, no individuals or groups can operate in a given national territory by ignoring the
state.
b. Externally – sovereignty means that a states policies and procedures are independent of the
interventions of other states.

Nation – According to Benedict Anderson, it is an “imagined community.” It is limited because it does

not go beyond a given “official boundary”.

Attributes of Today’s World Politics

1. There are countries or state that are independent and govern themselves.
2. These Countries interact with each other through diplomacy.
 3. There are international organizations like the United Nations (UN) that facilitate these
interactions.
4. Beyond simply facilitating meeting between states, international organizations also take on their
live of their own.

The Interstate System

Treaty of Westphalia – set of agreements in 1648 to end Thirty Years War between the major
continental powers of Europe.
The Holy Roman Empire, Spain, Sweded, and the Dutch Republic designed a system that avert
war.

Napoleon Bonaparte
Challenged the Westphilian system. Spread the the principle of French Revolution (LIBERTY,
EQUALITY, and FRATERNITY).
Napoleonic wars lasted from 1803-1815. And forbade birth priveleges, encourage freedom on
religion, and promoted meritocracy in government service. Anglo and Prussian Armies defeated
Napoleon in the battle of waterloo in 1815.

The Concert of Europe

An alliance of “Great Powers” (United Kingdom, Austria, Russia, and Prussia. Restore the World
of Monarchial, Heredity and Religious Privileges of the time before the French Revolution and
Napoleonic Wars. Lasted from 1815 to 1914.

Internationalism
System of heightened interaction between various sovereign states, particularly the desire for
greater cooperation and unity among states and peoples.
A. Liberal Internationalism
- Immanuel Kant, 18th Century German Philosopher. According to him without world
government, the international system would be chaotic. And promote nations of the
world.
- Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921), 20th century’s most prominent internationalist.
Promote “Principle of Self-Determination” He is the notable advocate of League of
Nations. For his efforts he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1919.
- Jeremy Bentham, British Philosopher in the 18th century. Promote “International Law”
- Guiseppe Mazzini, 19th Century Italian patriot. He believe in the republican
government (without king, queen, and hereditary succession) and proposed free nations
that cooperated to create international system.
- League of Nations (1919), Fail to avoid another war.
- Karl Marx, German Social Philosopher. True form of internationalism shoul deliberately
reject nationalism. He did not divide world into countries but into classes. The Capital
Class and the Proletariat Class.

B. Social Internationalism (SI)

o Union of European socialist and labor parties established in Paris in 1889. It collapsed
during World War I. and later on replaced into UNION of Soviet, Socialist, Bolshevik
o USSR – led by Bolshevik Party with Vladimir Lenin as leader.
o Lenin Established the communist international (Comitern) in 1919.
o Comitern was dissolved in 1943 by Joseph Stalin (Lenin’s Successor).
Lesson 4: International Organization and United Nations

What is Global Governance?

- Refers to the International process of consensus-forming which generates guidelines and
agreements that affect national governments and international corporations.
1. Signing of agreements or treaties for mutual understanding.
2. Joining regional and international organizations
3. Adhering to international laws.
4. Observing Global labor laws, trade policies and environmental legislation.
5. Promoting Global democracy and global governance.

What is International Organizations – This refers to the International intergovernmental organizations

or groups that are primarily made up of member-states.

What is United Nations?

- International Organization established October 24, 1945 in San Francisco, California, United
States.
- Its official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.
- To maintain peace and security for all its member states, to protect human rights and achieve
worldwide cooperation to solve international economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian
problems.

The UN was divided into (5) active Organs:

1. The General Assembly (GA)
o UN’s main deliberative policy-making and representative organ.
o Annually elects a GA President to serve one year term of office.
o (193 states) have seats in GA.
o Filipino diplomat Carlos P. Romulo was elected president of the GA from 1949-1950.
2. The Security Council (SC)
o Most powerful body with “primary responsibility for the maintenance of international
peace and security”
o Consists of 15 members
o GA elects 10 of these 15 to two year terms.
o The other 5 referred to as the permanent 5 (P5)are China, France, Russia, the United
Kingdom and the United States.
o To settle the act by peaceful means and recommends methods of adjustment or terms
of settlement.
3. The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
o Central platform for discussions on sustainable development, and it has 54 elected
members with a term of three years.
o Coordination of the economic, social, humanitarian and cultural activities carried out by
the United Nations.
4. The International Court of Justice (ICJ)
o Also known as the World Court. Main Judicial organ of the UN.
o Is to settle, in accordance with the international law, legal disputes submitted to it by
states and to give advisory opinion on legal questions reffered to it by authorized UN
organs and specialized agencies.
 5. Secretariat
o Administers and coordinates the activities of the United Nations.
o Is headed by the Secretary-General.

Challenges of the United Nations

1. The need to respect state sovereignty.

- Un is not world government, its functions primarily because of voluntary cooperation of states.

2. The Issues of Security

- Biggest Challenge of UN

Lesson 5: A World of Regions

Regions – Are group of countries located in same geographically specifies area or an amalgamation of
two regions or combination of two or more that two regions organized to regulate and oversee flows
and policy choices.

Regionalization – refers to regional concentration of economic flows.

Regionalism –refers to political process characterized by economic policy cooperation and coordination
among countries.

Countries form Regional associations for several reasons:

1. Military Defense
- The most widely known defense grouping is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
formed during cold war when several Western European against the threat of the soviet Union.
- Creating alliances, The Warsaw Pact, consisting of the Eastern European countries under Soviet
domination.
- The Soviet Union Imploded in December 1991, but NATO remains in place.

2. Trade
- To pool their resources, get better returns for their exports, as well as well as expand their
leverage against trading partners.
- The organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries or (OPEC) established in 1960 by Iran,
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to regulate the production and sale of oil.

3. Protect Independence
- Protects the independence from the pressure of Super power politics.
- Presidents from Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia created the Non- Aligned
Movement (NAM|) in 1961 to pursue international cooperation, human rights, national
sovereignty, racial and national equality, non-intervention, and peaceful conflict resolution.

4. Economic Crisis
- ASEAN along with China, Japan and South Korea agreed to establish an emergency fund to
anticipate a crisis that the Asian economies stabilized.
Contemporary Challenges to regionalism

1. The resurgence of militant nationalism and populism

2. Financial crisis.
3. Diagreements on sovereignty and stability
4. Differing visions of what regionalism should be for

Lesson 6: The Globalization of Religion

What is Religion?
- Collection of cultural system, belief systems and world views that established sysmbols that
relate humanity to spirituality and moral values.
- It comes from Latin word “Religare” which means to binds together again that which was once
bound but has since been torn or broken”.
- Religion epitomizes the definition due to fact that it can be spread more efficiently than ever
before through the use of different technological tools.
- There are many different religions, each with different set of beliefs.
- The largest religious are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism.

How has globalization affected religion?

- Has a great impact on religion.
- Takes advantage of communication and transporting technology.
- To spread of ideas of every religion is media and technology.
- Through media, we can learn about every religion that enhances and become one of the ways in
which people connect with each other around the globe.
Religion becomes culture pluralism that teach us to respect other religions