Globalization And Its Impact On Global Politics – OpEd
Globalization is an ongoing phenomenon of interconnectivity taking place at the world Level and it is also contributing to world politics. This phenomenon is being debated through multiple approaches and according to the transformationalist approach, globalization is not leading toward the demise of a sovereign state but rather to the globalization of politics where the gap between domestic and international affairs is narrowing.
The interconnectedness has reduced the importance of the states which are being referred as “Shrinkness” of the world and reducing the relative significance of the states. Economic integration is the immediate product of globalization which has linked together the fate of nations, communities, and households across the globe. The sharing of both development and collapse is the trend of globalization where a slowdown in the US economy is felt from Birmingham to Bangkok.
Global communication has organized like-minded people under international organizations which promote interdependence. Similarly, this process has recognized transnational problems (nuclear proliferation, non-state actors, and climate change) as a major threat to the world states. Though these problems arise beyond the state borders yet they have explicit impacts on the states. Surprisingly multiple states come under the threat banner of these problems regardless of their developing or developed nature as the 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre by Al-Qaeda is the best example that even the superpower is vulnerable to these threats.
Contemporary globalization is a multi-dimensional and complex process. It is taking place in every domain of social activity, economic, political, military, or cultural, with a different pattern, intensity, and pace in each domain. There is also a crossing of globalizing tendencies among these domains. Globalization is more advanced in some domains than others. Therefore, drawing conclusions about globalizing trends requires an analysis of each domain and its overlapping characteristics.
The patterns of contemporary globalization, economic and arms trade and human rights, etc., are also symmetrical among different communities, states, and regions and this consequently results in inter-state and intra-state inequalities. So the principle of globalization is not based on the ethic of global cooperation. In fact, the greater the world becomes globalized, the more it suffers fragmentation, differences, and conflicts. Institutionalized control and global communication infrastructures, along with the contradictory characteristics of globalization. These characteristics include integration and division, conflict and cooperation, and order and disorder. These features add to the complexity and unparalleled distinctiveness of contemporary globalization.
Contemporary globalization has turned the Westphalia system into an organized hypocrisy. The legitimate right to state sovereignty and non-intervention has been challenged due to the transition of the world to a post-Westphalian World Order where global politics is dominating the former trend of state-centric geopolitics. Interests have been integrated, problems are shared and decision-making is done by a global governance Complex, consisting of states, international institutions, transnational networks and agencies, and global public policy. The politics of worldwide social relations is the trend of the time. Transnational civil society is playing a significant role in mobilizing, organizing, and exercising power across the globe and this process has been facilitated by the global communication and common interest of different groups.
The global infrastructures which organize worldwide production have some lethal effects. The intra- state and trans-state conflicts in the global south are generating complex irregular warfare. These new wars are located in weak states and are rooted in identity politics. These new wars are sustained by finance and support provided to them by global networks i.e. diamond and drug trade. Global insecurity complexes are created by the spread of insecurities through global media from one part of the world to other. The agenda of global politics is not only associated with geopolitical concerns but it is also connected to economic, social, and cultural concerns. International cooperation among actors is required in order to counter the multidimensional problems caused by globalization. In globalization, states try to achieve domestic objectives through extensive multilateral collaboration and cooperation. This collaboration comes with the cost where during these engagements states have to compromise their autonomy. In global system power is not the sole preserver of the state because of its distribution at different levels and authority has diffused both upward and downward. Three factors of Inequalities and exclusion as products of globalization are power inequalities between states, the unwritten constitution of global governance which favors capitalism, and the technocratic nature of global decision-making. These factors are responsible for inequalities between North and South which are described as distorted global politics.
Globalization creates a double democratic deficit in that it places limits on democracy within states and creates a new mechanism of global governance that lacks democratic governance. Global politics has created its own political theory which draws upon cosmopolitan thinking and offers an account of the desirability and feasibility of democratization of world politics.
