GLOBAL ISSUES

WHAT IS GLOBAL ISSUE?

A global issue is a broad description that is often used to explain matters of great social concern that affect human populations locally and that are shared among diverse human societies within our global community. global issues are so important that they may literally determine the future of the human species.

Global issues are issues that:

Have significant impacts for large numbers of people.
(Peace and conflict, impacts of war, religion)

Are persistent, or longlong-acting

(World population)

Are interconnected Are trans-national trans(they are beyond the capability of any one nation to resolve Global warming.) (which means that a change in one whether for better or worse exerts pressure for change in others.

Global Issues VS. Events

Global issues are separate from events; they are the driving forces behind events. The nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, for example is not a global issue. It is an event, which is part of a larger pattern that includes Three Mile Island, global warming, and the Gulf War. Underlying that pattern of events is the global issue of energy.

ICEBERG MODEL
If we are able to look below the surface, however, we will find these events are only part of a pattern of related events. And if we look deep enough at the broad base of the iceberg that makes up most of its mass we will find the systemic structures that generate those patterns and events

Just as only the tip of an iceberg is visible above the surface of the sea, events are visible indicators. We tend to concentrate on these events, because they are easy to see, and we often tend to base our decisions on them.

Basically, all types of international and regional issues can be categorized as developing from 1. ECONOMIC 2. POLITICAL, or POLITICAL, 3. CULTURAL causes.

ECONOMIC CAUSES:

Conflict may arise over struggle for territory

Some nations wish to expand their lands by taking over territory owned by their neighbors.

Why might such a takeover be desired?

Often, nations seek more territory because they need more natural resources. resources.

Such resources might include fossil fuels or valuable minerals, minerals, lands, good agricultural lands, water resources, even access to the sea for trading purposes.

Such wars over resources are considered wars started for economic reasons.

POLITICAL CAUSES:

Other times, nations and people wish to takeover neighboring lands purely to exercise their power. power.

Often these causes for conflict are referred to as nationalist or political reasons.

People of a region or nation are proud of their heritage and believe they possess they right to takeover and rule another group of people just because they are powerful enough to do so!

Another type of political conflict might arise between those in power (control of the government) government) and citizens within the country who feel they have not been treated fairly.

Such citizens might have been denied political or civil rights, such as the rights, right to vote, to speak freely, or to receive fair treatment in courts of law.

CULTURAL CAUSES:

Many of today s international conflicts begin because of differences in culture. culture.

Such cultural differences are often religious differences.

Unfortunately, some religious groups feel their particular religion is superior to others and such intolerance leads to conflict.

Other cultural conflicts are based on ethnic or racial differences between groups of people living near one another.

One ethnic or racial group may feel superior to others. This may lead to prejudice and discrimination against the minority ethic or racial group.

Violence or warfare might eventually break out when minority groups attempt to fight for their individual rights or liberties. liberties.

EXAMPLES of INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT:

ECONOMIC CAUSES:

In 1990, Iraq invaded its 1990, neighbor Kuwait in an attempt to takeover the rich oilfields located there

Over the past decades, Peru and Chile engaged in border disputes and lawsuits in international courts over fishing rights off the Pacific coastline.

Disputes are ongoing between Israel and its neighbors, Lebanon and Syria, over use of water resources from shared river and aquifer systems.

Major land disputes around the world

POLITICAL CAUSES:

In 1989, university students 1989, led strikes and protests against the Chinese government to challenge that nation s authoritarian Communist government policies banning free speech and open elections.

Two times in the century, the nation of Germany invaded its European neighbors in an attempt to takeover their territory; these attempts led to World War I and II.

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In the 1980s, the Soviet Union 1980s, sent troops into Afghanistan, in an attempt to support a Communist government there, while the United States sent aid and military support of rebels against the SovietSoviet-backed government.

CULTURAL CAUSES:

In the mid 1990s, civil war 1990s, in Rwanda broke out between two major ethnic groups, each side seeking power and committing horrible crimes against civilians.

Over the last half century, the nation of Israel has defended itself against several military attacks by its Arab neighbors who have opposed a Jewish state in the Middle East.

Religious and cultural differences between Muslim and Hindu citizens of India in the 1930s and 1940s led 1930s 1940s to the partitioning of India, creating the Muslim nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh. These two nations are still involved in border disputes.

In the 1970s and 1980s, violence 1970s 1980s, broke our between Catholic and Protestants in Northern Ireland. Religious differences between the two sides extended to social, economic, and political discrimination, as well.

Several times in the 1980s 1980s and 1990s, civil war broke out 1990s, within the former nation of Yugoslavia as ethnic groups sought to establish their own sovereign nations.

GLOBALIZATION
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas.

Multinational Corporation
is a corporation enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation. as a corporation that has its management headquarters in one country, known as the home country, and operates in several other countries, known as host countries.

Advantages of Multinational Corporation

The advantages of a multinational business to host countries are:
Transfer of technology, capital and entrepreneurship. They increase the investment level and thus the income and employment in the host country. Greater availability of products for local consumers. Greater access to high quality managerial talent which tens to be scarce in host countries. Increase in exports and decrease in imports, thereby improving the balance of payment of host countries. Help in equalizing of cost of factors of production around the world. They provide an efficient means of integrating economics.

Advantages to home countries:

Acquisition of raw material from abroad, which is cheaper in cost. Technology and management expertise acquired from competing in global markets. Export of components and finished goods for assembly or distribution in foreign markets. Inflow of income from overseas profits, royalties and management contracts. Jobs and career opportunities at home and abroad in connection with overseas opportunities.

Disadvantages of Multinational Corporation

Trade restrictions imposed at the government-level Taxes or tariffs imposed on imports from other countries Limited quantities (quotas) of imports Effective management of a globally dispersed organization Slow down in the growth of employment in home countries. Destroy competition and acquire monopoly. Technology designed for mnc's is for worldwide profit maximization not for the social welfare or development of economy. They could cause fast depletion of some of the non renewable natural resources in the host country.

Technology Transfer
Is the process of moving technology to a novel setting and implementing it. It is a complex process due to transferring a familiar technology to a new environment.

Appropriate Technology VS. Intermediate Technology

Appropriate Technology Refer to identification, transfer, and implementation of the most suitable technology for a new set of condition. Includes social factors that go beyond routine economic and technical engineering constraints.

Agricultural Machines

Intermediate Technology Overlaps w/ appropriate technology but is not reducible to. Are preferable because most advance technologies usually have harmful side effect.

Migrations