Mark Russell
GVPT 200
Prof. Shirk
November 10, 2013
Blog 4: Globalization
and the Thought of Corporate Governance
Globalization
has always been a topic of interest to me as someone who likes addressing the
bigger picture and world politics as a whole. From the lecture and the slides,
I would like to address whether or not the idea of Globalization has come about
recently or not. In my mind, globalization is the spread of goods, cultures,
and ideas, which has been present since the beginning of time but I think the
origins start with the Roman Era, and the Silk Road and are truly shown with
the expansion of the British Empire.
Globalization is defined as, “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of
capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets,” by Merriam-Webster,
with its first use recorded in 1951. However, we can’t believe that in 1951
globalization was originated.
The first example
that came to mind was that of the Roman Empire. Now while I don’t believe that
this is true globalization, I do believe that it contains many of the
fundamental aspects needed. The Roman Empire was the first civilization to
rapidly expand while carrying their culture, religion, and form of government and
spread it to the territory that they inhabited. Now while they did not connect
the entire globe, the Romans had the most powerful empire in the world for centuries
while exploring and mapping the known world.
Although it was not a
civilization, I believe the Silk Road could also be looked at as a basic form
of globalization. Once again there was a free flow of capital throughout the
Middle East and China. This trade route is the epitome of free trade and the
development of new ideas. However, this did not touch on a global scale, as
implied in the name of globalization. So far these two examples have provided
solid examples of parts of globalization, however I believe that neither had
the full sense of interconnectedness needed to be considered global.
With all that being
said, I believe the first true example comes with England. To establish the key
point that the other two examples lacked, it was said that the sun never set on
the British Empire, establishing that it covered a vast amount of territory
from Africa to India and the United States. This empire was like nothing before
them, controlling the most territory through a dominant navy and a prolific army.
With this empire there was constant trade of goods from all over the globe
while ideas and culture also spread. Additionally, They were constantly exploiting
free or cheap labor through these colonies which is similar to what the Roman’s
had done throughout history.
However, I believe
that this can be seen because of Britain’s rise to be a unipolar power. In my
mind there was no other nation quite like them in the global system that
allowed for them to take power and control it for so long.
In the 1950’s this
unipolarity order arose again this time by the United States, with the
development of modern technology. However, I d strongly believe that this has
been demonstrated well prior to this point, while sometimes not in full.
Although it was mentioned within the slides, I believe that there was more to
touch on and discuss within this essay.
I completely agree that globalization is not new to the international system; the world has become increasingly interconnected as time progresses. I do think that the most recent wave of globalization is unique, though, and arguably more influential than others because of technological innovation and how easy the spread of information is because of these innovations. Modern transportation, the internet, and other technology have brought about increased interdependence and flourishing international trade.
ReplyDeleteI also think that Mark is correct in addressing the longevity of the history of globalization, and that it is not something which has arisen in only the past century. The connection of cultures, economies, and political systems has been occurring for several centuries, which I think you address well in this blog. I agree with Shiran in the sense that technology has expedited and increased the intensity of globalization; the globalization that we are experiencing today is somewhat instantaneous, an attribute which cannot be said about previous waves of globalization. Interdependence and the need for international cooperation has risen within the technological era, and while globalization has been a part of the world system since the early days of the Silk Road, our current concept of "globalization" encompasses far more than what the previous international ties may have entailed.
DeleteI had never thought about how quickly we had expanded with the development of technology, which makes it weird to think about the future of globalization and what we will expand to next. I think that I failed to mention this technological expansion so thank you for pointing it out!
DeleteI agree that early forms of globalization took place in the roads of the Roman Empire and the Silk Road, but these were limited and only what was desired to transfer did transfer. There is a darker side to modern globalization, in that if we do embrace this new 'world market', both the good and the bad aspects of each market would inevitably transfer internationally, as it would not be able to be controlled. The devitalizing of individual states may be somewhat dangerous, as a loss of identity of each could hand a hegemon an opportune chance to gain a foothold as THE global economy.
ReplyDelete