Big Era Nine
Paradoxes of
Global Acceleration
1945-2004
The World in 1945:
 50 million people killed during WW II
 Parts of Europe, Asia, and North Africa
in ruins
 World trade severely damaged
Much of
the world
looked
pretty
bleak.
 Many European economies in shambles
European Colonial empires crumbling
Growing nationalist movements in Africa
and Asia
 U.S. the major industrial and atomic
power
The world entered a new era.
Cold War policies developed:
 The Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe
and part of Germany.
The U.S. moves to encircle the Soviet Union
with a system of alliances and military aid.
U.S. offers Marshal plan to rebuild Europe
and gives $13 billion in aid.
The U.S. adopted a policy of “Containment”
of the Soviet Union with military bases around
the world.
An “Iron Curtain” of tense relations
separated the Western allies from the U.S.S.R.
and its allies.
The World became divided into
two hostile camps: The U.S.S.R.
and the U.S.
Pres. Harry
Truman
1946-60
Joseph Stalin
During the Cold
War, the U.S.S.R
and the U.S.
followed a policy
of Mutual Assured
Destruction (MAD).
The U.S. and U.S.S.R
had enough nuclear
bombs to destroy the
world about 400
times.
I guess
it made
sense at
the
time.
Mutual Assured Destruction is a
military deterrence strategy in
which a full scale use of nuclear
weapons by one of the opposing
powers would result in the
destruction of both.
The Cold War was very costly
in lives.
1950-53 - A divided
Korea led to war,
separated family
members, and cost a
million lives,
including 48,000
Americans.
1963-1972 - Three
million people died in
the Vietnam War,
including 58,000
Americans.
The forty years of the Cold War were
costly in resources. We spent 3.5 trillion,
and for what?
We spent 5.5 trillion
dollars on nuclear
arms, and we won!
How much
is a trillion
dollars?
George H.W. Bush
Michail Gorbachev
A trillion dollars is enough to give each
family in the U.S. $100,000.
During the cold war many former
colonized peoples created new
nations.  India gained independence from
Britain in 1947.
 Indonesia gained independence
from the Dutch in 1949.
 Ghana gained independence from
Great Britain in 1957.
.
 By 1965 most former European
colonies had become newly created
independent nation-states.
The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. competed for
the loyalties of these new nations.
Several of the new nations
pursued a non-aligned policy.
• In 1955 India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia
sponsored the Bandung Conference of NonAligned nations. It aimed to promote
solidarity among newly independent states
and to prevent the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
from meddling in their domestic affairs.
• Nehru and Sukarno led the meeting.
Sukarno
of
Indonesia
Nehru of India
Colonialism left new nations
“Underdeveloped.”
This table shows how shares of world Gross Domestic
Product changed between 1870 and 1998.
Date
India
China
Africa
Japan
Western
Europe and
U.S.
1870
12.2
17.2
3.6
2.3
42.5
1913
7.6
8.9
2.7
2.6
52.6
1950
4.2
4.5
3.6
3.0
53.6
1973
3.1
4.6
3.3
7.7
47.7
1998
5.0
11.5
3.1
7.7
42.5
What might we learn from this table about patterns
of economic development in the world?
In 1750, China and
India provided 57%
of world
manufacturing.
In 1953, they
manufactured only
4% of the world’s
goods.
What caused such a
dramatic change?
In the 1960s, as the colonized people gained
independence, the world-wide split between the
North –rich industrial nations—and the South –
poor “third world” nations—grew wider.
How did Western leaders try to
restore world trade after World War
II?
In 1944, at the Bretton
Woods Monetary
Conference in New
Hampshire, Western
leaders:
Created the World Bank.
Established the International
Monetary Fund.
Established stable currency
exchange rates.
Ushered in a new Global Age
of economic cooperation.
However, these agreements
did not include the
Communist bloc nations
In 1971, however, the high cost of the
Vietnam War prompted President Richard
Nixon to abolish the fixed currency
exchange rates that had been established
at Bretton Woods.
Gold backing for
currencies was
eliminated.
World currencies
“floated.”
The Age of Free Market
Capitalism began, but still
excluded the Soviet bloc
nations
“Underlying most
arguments against the
free market is a lack of
belief in freedom itself.“
Economist Milton
Friedman
In theory, free world trade
encourages greater economic
specialization, more productivity,
and greater wealth.
Efficient use of world
resources is possible.
And each country
can concentrate on
what it does best.
Tariffs are eliminated.
Businesses can move where
they make more profits.
More jobs are created.
People have more money
to spend.
In the 1980s the U.S. moved to expand
free market capitalism within the
global system.
Little government interference in
the market
What is
free
market
capitalis
m?
Freedom of individual choice
Borderless market economy
Markets as masters over state
policies
People should be free to pursue
economic self-interest
Consuming goods a major value
However, most nations continued to
pursue some forms of economic
nationalism
In the 1980s China moved toward a
free-market system and joined the
global economy.
China’s Trade surplus balance
with U.S. $666.2 billion in the 2004,
China now buys from 1-2 billion
dollars of the U.S. debt each day.
China’s economy will probably equal that of US.
In twenty-five years.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the Cold
War ended. Eastern European countries broke
away from Soviet control. The Soviet Union itself
broke into more than a dozen new states.
The Berlin Wall was
built in August 1961
The Wall was
destroyed
on November 9,
1989
In 1991, India abandoned it’s 44 year-old
socialist oriented economy and embraced a the
free market system and joined the global
economy.
With a GDP of 800 billion dollars, India is now the
fourth largest world economy after the U.S.,
China and Japan.
India’s growth rate has averaged about 5.8 per cent
for the past fifteen years.
Major exports
include
Clothing
Automobiles
Handicrafts
In the 1990s, with the integration
of many of the states of the
former Soviet Union and the
entry of China and India,
Globalization now embraced the
majority of the world’s
economies .
In the 1980s, the U.S., the major world power,
became the chief advocate of free market
capitalism for the global system.
What is Globalization?
Increasing global
connectedness through
rapid communication and
transport.
Rapid intensification of
worldwide social relations.
Swift and free flow of
capital, people, and ideas
across national borders.
World population has been
rapidly increasing.
Wow!
More than
6
billion
people
now alive.
billions
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
1803 - 124 yrs 1927- 33 yrs 1960 - 14 yrs 1974 - 12 yrs 1986 – 13 yrs
The time it takes to add a billion
people grows shorter.
Life
expectancy
is rising,
but it varies
world wide.
Average life
expectancy
for the world
is 70 years.
Country
Average Life
Expectancy
Sweden
79.2
France
78
United
States
71.1
Bangladesh
62.8
Botswana
40.1
Zimbabwe
39.2
Speed of
travel has
increased
dramatically.
1957
World wide
communication
is almost
instantaneous
1962
1981
Look at this antique
computer. It doesn’t
even have a hard
drive!
1977
1982
The computer has been changing
billions of lives.
IT Engineer
seeks
househusband
..
Will you be my
E-pal?
We’re catching
up with the U.S.
economy.
I raised my
campaign funds via
the internet.
Where are the
books I ordered?
I’m applying
to college.
Cap from
Bangladesh
Shirt
from
Mexico
Backpack
from
China
Soccer ball
from
Pakistan
But what
does
globalizatio
n have to do
with me?
Jeans
from
Malaysia
Video game
from Japan
Sneakers from
Indonesia
New technologies allow humans to
control nature like never before
.
Expanding
technology
makes
possible a
cornucopia of
new products
for us
More goods are being produced,
bought, and sold worldwide
What
than ever before.
shall I buy
next?
Globalization also spreads ideas
and values.
Democratic ideas have spread to
more countries than ever before.
India
Korea
Japan
Taiwan
Malaysia
Qatar
Mali
Brazil
South
Africa
But globalization
brings high human
costs.
Although the world’s people are producing more than
47 trillion dollars in wealth, these riches are not
distributed equally.
The growing gap between the rich
and the poor continues to increase.
20% get most of the wealth.
The U.S. owns 11 trillion dollars of
this wealth.
2 billion of the world’s people live
on less than $2 a day.
Peasants are forced to leave the
land as money and wage
economies spread.
Workers without education and skills
are often left behind.
Global Distribution of Income
(2002)
Each bar represents
a fifth of the world's
population arranged
by income.
Richest
2nd
82.7
11.7
3rd
2.3
4th
1.9
Poorest
1.4
Percentage of Global Income
Gross Domestic
Product (GDP)
of Selected
Countries and
Corporations
2002
Corporations in bold face
Some big
multinational
corporations
have more
wealth than
many nations.
GDP/value
added
Ranking
$trillion
1
United States
9.9
2
Japan
4.7
$billion
40
Malaysia
89.7
41
Colombia
81.3
42
Philippines
74.7
43
Chile
70.5
44
Wal-Mart
Stores
67.7
45
Pakistan
61.6
46
Peru
53.5
47
Algeria
53.3
48
Exxon
57.6
49
Czech Republic
50.8
50
New Zealand
51
Bangladesh
47.1
52
United Arab
Emirates
46.5
53
General Motors
46.2
54
Hungary
45.6
55
Ford Motor
45.1
56
Mitsubishi
44.3
57
Mitsui
41.3
58
Nigeria
41.1
59
Citigroup
39.1
60
Itachu
38.4
50
In poor countries child labor is
widespread. Some 212 million children of
ages 5-14 are working instead of going to
school.
These young
girls work 12
hours a day, 6
days a week,
earning $2-3 per
week.
Most child labor
involves
high energy work.
Outsourcing is increasing.
In 2003, the U.S. lost 234,000 information
technology jobs. An estimated 14 million more
jobs may move overseas. But the U.S. loss is a
gain for India, China, Ireland, Korea and other
nations
Narayana Murthy (right) and his
Infosys Information Technology
complex in Bangalore, India.
Manufacturing and capital flows
to the areas of the world where
they can make the most profits.
 Strong labor unions
 High wages
 Environment
protection laws and
 Unstable
governments
all tend to keep
businesses and
investment away.
The speed of globalization results in more pollution
and global warming caused by
over-cutting forests.
burning fossil fuels.
producing more industrial and consumer waste.
Growing threats to the
environment affect all people
Global warming
lead to major
floods.
Lots of people question
globalization.
Globalization
is forcing my
child to work.
.
Free trade
is destroying
us farmers.
Hollywood
is ruining
our
children.
Development
is destroying
our rain forest.
Industrial
countries are
leaving us out
of Globalization.
We have 50
million people
living in poverty.
Some people
believe that
globalization is
“cultural
imperialism”.
Can you interpret how
this cartoon depicts the
idea of “cultural
imperialism?”
Globalization involves
paradoxes.
You mean it’s
Profitable industry but widening not good for
gap between rich and poor?
everyone?
Lots of cultural pluralism but
people becoming “homogenized?”
Increasing interdependence but
small communities banding more
tightly together?
Huge wealth in industrialized
nations but great poverty in other
countries?
People respond to globalization
differently.
 Some wholeheartedly
embrace it.
 Some seek to maintain
their traditions in the face
of perceived threats.
 Some fight for more
economic fairness.
 Some turn to religion.
 Some violently oppose it.
 Some try to manage it for
the greater human good.
A house in Figuig, an oasis
in Morocco on the edge of the
Sahara Desert. This family
reaches out to the world through
its satellite dish.
Terrorism has ushered in a new
global threat.
Modern military strategies
and weapons are often
ineffective against suicide
attacks.
 Terrorists communicate and
spread their ideologies using
cell phones and the Internet.
Terrorist groups may have
cells in many nations.
In 2002, the United States
government adopted policies of
massive military intervention as part
of a war on terror.
2002 – U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan to topple the
government of the Taliban, which was cooperating with
international terrorists.
2003 – U.S. forces invaded Iraq to overthrow the government
of Saddam Hussein. The U.S. accused him of supporting
terrorism.
Are we entering a new era of
international relations?
In this new era will the U.S. act as
democratic leader, the supreme world
power, as an empire?
 owns about one fourth of
the world’s wealth.
working to create
democratic institutions in
Afghanistan, Iraq, and other
countries.
 has military force equal to
the next 20 countries
combined.
striving to be a model of
democracy for the world.
 maintains 725 military
bases, valued at $118 billion,
with 254,000 military
personnel in 153 nations.
Do these
factors help us
answer the
question?
Your decisions and actions will
help shape the future.
Will we cooperate to
fight terrorism and
work to ensure that
all people live in
dignity? How these
issues turn out is
really up to us.
One person can make a
difference.
Big Era
Nine ends
here, but
it’s not over
yet!