Debate Paper 5
Xianyue Wang
March 24th, 2014
Word count: 1805
Is globalization a sustainability problem?
The historical origins of globalization are the subject of on-going debate. Though several
scholars situate the origins of globalization in the modern era, others regard it as a
phenomenon with a long history. Some authors have argued that stretching the beginning of
globalization far back in time renders the concept wholly inoperative and useless for political
analysis. The 19th century witnessed the advent of globalization approaching its modern form.
Industrialization allowed cheap production of household items using economies of scale, while
rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities. Globalization in this
period was decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism. After the Opium Wars and the
completion of British conquest of India, vast populations of these regions became ready
consumers of European exports. It was in this period that areas of sub-Saharan Africa and the
Pacific islands were incorporated into the world system. Meanwhile, the conquest of new parts
of the globe, notably sub-Saharan Africa, by Europeans yielded valuable natural resources such
as rubber, diamonds and coal and helped fuel trade and investment between the European
imperial powers, their colonies, and the United States. Globalization is definitely a long term
phenomenon and most people thinks that it is inevitable; however we should really think about
the pros and cons about globalization and decide what we are going to do with our world.
Globalization is a worldwide issue, and of course the entire globe will be the stakeholders, let
me list some people who would be the key stakeholders in this matter. First of all, the
government of all countries, since they are the one who sign and pass law, who communicate
with each other and basically the key to globalization. Secondly, it would be all the economist,
businessman and scientist, since they are the one why controls the economy and exchange high
technology information with other countries, which also lead to some sort of globalization.
Furthermore, environmentalist and environmental advocates also place a very special role in
environmental globalization. Last but not least, the minorities in all countries who has the
unique culture background and a special style of living, globalization will lead to the vanish of
these valuable culture. Let’s talk a little bit about some sub issues of this topic, since this is such
a big topic there are a lot of sub issues that might appear. Here is a list of the sub issues: Will
globalization weaken our national security when the defense and technology is so globalized? Is
everyone in the world using the same defense system? When the world is so globalized, what
are the individual values of the countries? Will we lost a lot of unique culture within the
countries and what kind of culture will we adopt? If we put it to an extreme, will there be any
different when I travel from one country to another? Last but not least, will we lost of pride of
being American, Britain, Chinese or Brazilian when there’s nothing more so special about our
country anymore?
When we talk about globalization, it is very hard to tell if it is good or not, therefore we
can’t even define if it’s a sustainable problem or not. Let’s discuss some of the down side of
globalization, first of all globalization has a tendency to influence the lives of people were ever
it occurs this is the reason that it is also associated with Americanization. It brings very
American ways in to different countries. Globalization affects 3 different areas economic,
political and cultural but that comes with ethical implications. Globalization is a fashion trend it
brings certain trends to different countries for example in technologically specifically phones it
brings the trend of having the most updated smart phone out there which is associated with a
very American view. Globalization also affects identity because it brings the economic, political
and cultural view point of a foreign country to its host country. Moreover, globalization is all
about the new risks and uncertainties brought about by the high degree of integration of
domestic and local markets, intensification of competition, high degree of imitation, price and
profit swings, and business and product destruction. Corporations that previously have been
enjoying the benefits of globalization, now face unstable and unpredictable demand and
business opportunities and their products quickly become commodities, leaving them little or
no pricing power and under constant pressure by new competitors that undermine profitability.
Furthermore, globalization will cause the countries to lose their identity, such as cultures and
foods and what the countries has unique about will just fade away. With all these negative
effects of globalization, it definitely cannot be sustainable.
We cannot say that globalization and entirely a bad thing; it comes with some good
things too. For example it gives countries the opportunity to work with other countries. It also
gives the U.S. and businesses in the U.S. the chance to expand and make more money.
Globalization lets companies expand around the world and reach more clients and customers. It
also gives people the chance to experience and purchase from other countries. Also, it might
actually decrease the amount of discriminations around the world because there will not be so
much different between any of us, we will all speak the same language and have the same
background.
The reason why I think globalization is not a sustainability problem is because there have
been a lot of debates on the topic of whether we can achieve globalization and sustainable
development at the same time. Different scientists and researchers used different methods and
aspects to measure the level of globalization and sustainable development in the studies and
reports. However, it is strange that there is almost no scientists have thought about the
relationship between globalization and sustainability. This relationship also can be widely
considered as how to improve the globalization and sustainable development together. The
reason why I think the globalization is not a sustainability problem is because sometimes we
can get these two goals together. We shouldn’t think these two purposes we only can get one.
It may be not a tradeoff. For example, at the 2000 Millennium Summit, the UN member states
adopted a set of global development goals, known as the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGS). By adopting these goals, they committed themselves to halving world poverty by 2015
through concerted global action. This goal can be achieved through a holistic framework of
global development cooperation and partnership, in which recipient countries are in the driving
seat, with full ownership of their development strategies and processes, and donor countries
play an effective supportive role. At the continental perspective, Africans are now taking charge
of their destiny as there is a growing consensus that development cannot be imposed from
outside. Rather, it should be homegrown, owned and managed by African countries themselves
and reflecting the broad kinds of needs and aspirations of their societies. In this connection, the
New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) constitutes the African answer to the
problems faced by the continent, and the African strategy for sustainable development. At the
national perspective, an example country Mozambique has been implementing its own strategy
for poverty eradication and sustainable development, commonly known as PARPA (Action Plan
for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty 2001-2005). The specific objective is the reduction of the
incidence of absolute poverty from 70% in 1997 to less than 60% by 2005 and less than 50% by
the end of this decade. However, it’s important to point out that despite the overall negative
consequences of globalization in Africa, represented by the prevalence of absolute poverty in
Africa in general and Mozambique in particular, this country has been making impressive
strides towards sustainable development. In fact, Mozambique has been recording
extraordinary rates of GDP growth for the last 5 years, coupled with macroeconomic stability,
low inflation and political environment for business. As a result of these positive developments,
Mozambique has been rather successful in attracting investments into the country. For
example, they have been able to secure investments for an aluminum smelter (MOZAL) worth
over $ 2 billion, a natural gas pipeline running to South Africa worth around $ 1.2 billion and
other major investment projects such as heavy sands, the development corridors of Maputo
and Beira just to mention a few. These major achievements clearly show that despite the
difficult period, Mozambique has been able to present itself as a viable destination for
investments. Of course this is quite an encouraging development that hopefully will have a
multiplying effect. This example shows that poor countries can get out of poverty step by step.
The intention of globalization was to promote incorporation around the world to achieve the
sustainable development. So in the end both sides of goals were achieved.
The arguments, facts and reasoning above seem persuasive, but I also identified some
holes and some evidences are mishandled. I found that it was not enough to address the
resource usage in a poor country to get out of poverty. Even we can get good growth in
economics; we also need to take sustainability into account. We need to teach these countries
how to fish instead of give them fish. We should concern on more elements and aspects of
globalization and sustainability. Furthermore, more holistic eco-efficiency indicators need to be
further considered as the next step to create true sustainable development. So we need to
think further, then we can have a conclusion.
According to Rob Curran, a few years ago, globalization has changed the relationships
In terms of
sustainability, globalization has been accompanied by impacts on the interlinked areas of
environment, equality and political stability, and thus there are clear and established
connections with their concept of sustainable development. As core elements of sustainability
and therefore of sustainable globalization human security, social justice and environmental
protection are themselves interlinked and interdependent. The notion of social justice can be
seen to induce equality and social inclusion, while human security encapsulates financial
stability, civil order, and the pursuit of peace.
In my opinion, I think that globalization is a sustainable problem because I believed that
every country should have its unique view and culture and we should not be all the same. Also,
globalization lead to a lot of security and national defense issue, I don’t think that being
globalized will actually decrease people’s intentions to take over other countries, therefore if
we want to be both globalized and sustainable, there are still a lot of things we have to work on.
Citation
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Curran, Rob. "Join Academia.edu & Share your research with the world." A Sustainable Globalization. 24
Mar. 2014 <http://www.academia.edu/835586/A_Sustainable_Globalization>.
Dapice, David. "Is Globalization Sustainable?" Is Globalization Sustainable? Yale Global, 26 Sept. 2002.
Web. 25 Mar. 2014. <http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/globalization-sustainable>.
Mourdoukoutas, Panos. "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Side Of Globalization."Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 10 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
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Curran, Rob. "Join Academia.edu & Share Your Research with the World." A Sustainable Globalization.
N.p., Aug. 2009. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.