Download Cross-Cultural and Global Communications

Chapter 38: A World without
Borders
The End of the Cold War
 Intro
 Between 1989 and 91, the Soviet system in Europe collapsed
 Partly encouraged by President Ronald Reagan who reinvigorated cold war animosities, calling the USSR the
“evil empire”
 Advocated enormous military spending, and his rhetoric and budget challenged détente and the Soviet ability
to match US spending
 Internal changes within the Soviet Union and eastern Europe worked the most to end communism and the cold war
 Whether forced by internal dissent or by the horrendous military and economic costs,the superpower soon backed down
from their traditional polarizing division of the world
 Led to the collapse of the Cold War world, as the nonviolent revs of cent/east Europe from ’89-’90 gave them their
independence, created democratic reforms, and adopted market-based economies
 The downfall of communist regimes in Europe was the direct result of interrelated economic and political
developments
 Economic weakness of the communist regimes became so apparent as to require reforms
 The policies of new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev (power in ’85) were an effort to address economic
deterioration
 Also unleashed a tidal wave of revolution
 As communism unraveled throughout eastern and central Europe, Gorbachev tried to save the USSR from
disintegration by restructuring the economy and liberalizing society
 Caught between radical reforms and the opposition of entrenched interests, there was little he could do except
watch the events unfold
 By the time the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Soviet vision of socialism had ceased to inspire either fear or
emulation
 The cold war system of states and alliances became irrelevant to intl relations
Revolutions in Eastern and Central Europe
 Intro
 The inability to connect communism w/nationalism left communist regimes vulnerable throughout eastern and central
Europe
 Those regimes were born in Moscow, transplanted by the Soviet army, and shored up by tanks and bayonets
 To many in cen/east Europe, these govts lacked legitimacy from the beginning
 Despite the best efforts of local communist leaders, the regimes were never firmly established
 Despite economic stagnation, an accelerated arms race w/the US, and obvious signs of discontent, the rulers of east/cen
Euro were too reluctant to restructure their ailing system
 Remained for Gorbachev to unleash the forces that resulted in the disappearance of the Soviet empire in Europe
 Revoked the Brezhnev Doctrine, and from now on each country would be responsible for its own destiny
 Led to the collapse or overthrow of regimes in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and East
Germany
 Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary
 The end of communism came first in Poland, where Solidarity, a combined trade union and nationalist movement, put
pressure on the crumbling rule of the Communist Party
 The Polish gov legalized the previously banned Solidarity movement and agreed to multiparty elections in 1989
and ‘90
 The voters favored Solidarity and elected Lech Walesa, the movement’s leader
 In Bulgaria popular unrest forced Todor Zhivkov to resign in Nov ‘89
 Two months later, a natl assembly began dismantling the communist state
 Hungarians tore down the Soviet-style political system during ’88 and ‘89
 In ’90 they held free elections and launched their nation on the rocky path toward democracy and a market
economy
 Velvet and Violent Revolutions
 The disintegration of communism continued elsewhere in east Euro
 In Czechoslovakia a “velvet revolution” swept communists out of office and restored democracy by 1990
 The term velvet revolution derived from the idea that aside from the initial suppression of mass demonstrations,
little violence was associated with the transfer of power in societies formerly ruled by an iron fist
 The communists leaders stood by and watched events take their course
 In 1993, disagreements over the timeline for shifting to a market economy led to a “velvet divorce”
 Broke Czechoslovakia into two nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia
 In Romania, the regime of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu refused to acknowledge the necessity of reform
 Their secret police repressed demonstrations violently, setting off a national uprising the ended in 4 days, leaving
Ceausescu and his wife dead
 Fall of the Berlin Wall
 East Germany had long been a staunchly communist Soviet satellite
 Its aging leader, Erich Honecker, openly objected to Gorbachev’s ideas and stayed with Stalinist policies
 When he showed bewilderment when East German fled the country through openings in the iron curtain in other
countries, he was replaced
 It was too late to do anything other than radical changes- including opening the Berlin Wall on 9 Nov 1989,
beginning the end
 Thousands of east and west Berliners tore down the Berlin Wall in the last weeks of 1989
 In 1990 the two Germanies formed a united nation
The Collapse of the Soviet Union
 Intro
 The desire to concentrate attention and resource on urgent matters at home motivated Gorbachev’s decision to disengage
his nation from the cold war and its military and diplomatic extensions
 When he came to power in 1985, the USSR needed economic reform and the liberalization of their society
 Never intended to abolish the existing political and economic system
 Became impossible to undermine parts of the system without undermining the whole
 Gorbachev’s Reforms
 Focused on the ailing economy
 Antiquated industrial plants, obsolete tech, and inefficient govt control of production resulted in shoddy and
outmoded products
 The diversion of enough resources to the military made it impossible to produce enough consumer goods
 The failure of state and collective farms to feed the pop compelled them to import grain from Canada, US, and other
nations
 By 1990 the govt imposed rationing to cope with the scarcity of essential consumer goods and food
 Economic stagnation in turn contributed to the decline of the Soviet standard of living
 Infant mortality increased while life expectancy decreased
 Funding of the education system dropped tremendously
 Pollution threatened to engulf the entire country
 Demoralization affected large numbers of citizens as divorce rates climbed, corruption intensified, and alcoholism
became widespread
 Perestroika and Glasnost
 Under the slogan of “acceleration”, Gorbachev tried to shock the economy out of its coma
 Old methods of boosting production through bureaucratic exhortation and harassment paid few dividends
 Called attention to the drawbacks of centralized economic control
 Gorbachev contemplated different kinds of reform, using the term perestroika (“restructuring”) to decentralize the
economy
 To make perestroika worked, the Soviet leader linked it to glasnost, a term that referred to the opening of Soviet society
to public criticism and admission of past mistakes
 Perestroika proved more difficult to implement than Gorbachev imagined
 Glasnost lead to a torrent of criticism that shook the Soviet state to its foundations
 When Gorbachev pushed economic decentralization, the profit motive and the cost-accounting methods he instituted
engendered hostility
 By those whose privileged positions depended on the old system
 Many of Gorbachev’s comrades and factions of the military objected to perestroika and worked to undermine or destroy
it
 Glasnost also turned out to be a two-edged sword since it opened the door for public criticism of party leaders and
Soviet institutions in a way unimaginable a short time earlier
 As the long-lived discontent with Soviet life came forward, long-repressed ethnic and nationalist sentiments bubbled to
the surface
 Only half of the 285 million Russian citizens were Russian
 The other half had never fully reconciled themselves to Soviet dominance
 The pressures on the Soviet system were exacerbated by an ill-considered and costly Soviet military intervention in 1979
to save a Marxist regime in Afghanistan
 For nine years, well-equipped Soviet forces fought a brutal, unsuccessful campaign against Afghan mujahedeen
(Islamic warriors)
 Gradually the mujahedeen gained control over the countryside as money and weapons from the US, Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan and China sustained them in their struggle
 The CIA supplied the decisive weapon of the war: ground-to-air Stinger missiles, which could be used to shoot
down heavily armored Soviet helicopters, and thousands of mules to haul supplies from Pakistan
 In 1986 the Kremlin pulled their troops out of the unpopular and unwinnable war
 Full Soviet withdrawal in 1989
 Collapse
 By the summer of 1990, Gorbachev’s reforms had spent themselves
 As industrial and farming production continued their downward slide against a backdrop of sky-rocketing inflation, the
Soviet economy disintegrated
 Many minorities contemplated secession from the USSR while viewing the destruction of the communist movement
in east/cen Euro
 The Baltic peoples (Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians) were first to the fray, declaring their independent in Aug
1991
 In the following months the remaining twelve republics of the USSR followed suit
 The largest and most prominent of the Soviet republics, the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic and its recently
elected president Boris N. Yeltsin led the drive to independence
 Soviet leaders vacillated between threats of repression and promises of better treatment, but neither option could
strop the movement for independence
 Although the reform was neither quick nor thorough enough for some, others were convinced they had gone too far
 While Gorbachev was vacationing in Crimea in Aug 1991, a group of conspirators decided to seize power
 Gorbachev’s friend and ally Yeltsin crushed the coup with the help of loyal Red Army units
 Ended Gorb’s political career
 Yeltsin pushed the country toward market-oriented economic reform
 Several constituent regions moved toward independence
 On 25 Dec 91, the USSR ceased to exist
 Toward and Uncertain Future
 In many ways, the cold war proved a comfort to the world
 WW2 left most of the militarist, fascist, and imperialist nations in shambles, and the US and the USSR stepped into
a vacuum in global leadership
 While perilous and controlling, the cold war that resulted from the ideological contest between the superpowers had
ordered and defined the world for almost 50 years
 The CW also shaped how the nations and peoples of the world perceived themselves
 Good capitalists v. evil communists, progressive socialists v. regressive capitalists, nonaligned striving to find their
own path
 While placing constraints, it also made the choices easy
 At the end of the cold war, those easy choices disappeared
 The end of the CW suggested a radical shift in power relations, a global realignment that marked a new era of world
history devoid of the categories embraced during the CW
The Global Economy
 Intro
 The global economy came into public view after the collapse of communism in 1990
 Economists pointed to a new economic order characterized by the:
 Expansion of trade between countries
 Growth of foreign investments
 Unfettered movement of capital
 Privatization of former state enterprises
 Wave of deregulation that undermined the control that natl govts once had
 Emergence of a new breed of corporations
 Supporting the new global economy were:
 Developments in communications
 Semiconductors, fiber-optic cables have diminished all distance
 Causing an ever-faster integration of the market economy
 The forces driving the world economy toward increased economic integration has been responsible for globalization
Economic Globalization
 Intro
 Globalization is a widely used term
 In econ context, globalization is the reduction and removal of barriers between national borders to facilitate the
flow of goods, capital, services, and labor
 This is not a new phenomenon- Ancient Rome and China controlled and economically integrated vast regions of the
world
 More recently, western European nations created worldwide empires where goods and ppl moved relatively easy
 The most recent phenomenon of globalization, has been different and unprecedented in both scope and speed
 Has the potential to transform the social and political as well as the economic contours of the world
 Free Trade
 Intl trade proved to be a key driving force behind econ globalization
 Trade across long distances had figured prominently in the shaping of human history
 For at least the past 500 years it has served as an integrating forces
 More recently is the term free trade- freedom from state-imposed limits and constraints on trade across borders
 The issue of free trade engendered a debate about the extent to which free trade enhances the prosperity of a
society
 Post-WW2, leaders from industrialized nations, took a decisive stand on the issue
 GATT and WTO
 US politicians and business leaders wanted to establish an intl trading system that suited their interests
 Pushed for the elimination of restrictive trading practices that stood in the way of free trade
 The main vehicle for the promotion of unrestricted free trade was the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), signed by the representatives of 23 noncommunist nations in 1947
 In 1994, the GATT members signed an agreement to establish the World Trade Organization (WTO), taking over
the activities of the GATT
 The WTO developed into a forum for settling intl trade disputes w/power to enforce its decisions
 Has 153 members (97% of all world trade)
 Global Corporations
 The emergence of a new breed of corporation played a key role in the new economic order
 Global corporations have replaced the more traditional intl or multinational forms of corporate enterprises
 Intl companies were born out of the desire to extend business activities across borders
 Pursued specific activities like importation, exporting, and the extraction of raw materials
Intl companies evolved into multinationals, which conducted their business in several countries
 Had to operate within the laws and customs of a given society
 During the past 25 years, the transformation of the corporate landscape has resulted in the birth of 50k global
corporations
 In contrast to the multinational, the typical global corp relies on a small hq staff
 disperse all other corporate functions across the globe in search of the lowest possible operating costs
 They treat the world as a single market and act as if the nation-state no longer exists
 Global corporations have become the symbols of the new economy
 Also begun to transform the social and political landscape of many societies
 During the past 65 years, many corporations have been operating under the constraints of a social compact with
their employees and communities
 Through a combination of collective bargaining agreements, tax laws, and environmental regulations, these
companies had to contribute to the welfare of their home communities
 Highly mobile global corps that are no longer bound to any particular location have managed to escape those
obligations and break the social compact
 Competing with companies around the world, the global corp has moved jobs from high-wage facilities to foreign
locations where wages are low and environment laws are weak and nonexistent

Economic Growth in Asia
 Intro
 Globalization and the speeding up of worldwide econ integration benefited from economic development in E/SE Asia
 The economies of Japan, China, and the Asian tigers underwent dramatic econ growth
 The Asian “economic miracle” was largely due to globalization
 Japan
 US policies jump-started economic revival after its defeat in 1945
 By 1949 the Japanese econ had already attained its prewar level of productivity
 Just as west Europe benefited from the Marshall Plan, Japan benefited from direct US financial aid, investment,
and the abandonment of war reparations
 Also, there was no restriction on the entry of Japanese products into the US market
 A 1952 mutual defense treaty stipulated that Japan could never spend more than 1% of its gnp on defense
 Led to Japan’s leaders investing heavily into econ development
 At first sight, Japan’s economy was ill equipped for econ growth
 Lost its overseas empire
 Hampered by a large pop and lack of natural resources
 The econ planners sidestepped their disadvantages by promoting an export-oriented growth supported by low wages
 The large and compliant workforce, willing to endure working conditions and wages intolerable in the west, gave
employers a competitive edge over intl rivals
 Although Japanese industries had to pay for the import of most raw materials, the low cost of Japanese labor
ensured the production of goods that were cheap enough to compete on the basis of price
 Initially, the Japanese economy churned out labor-intensive manufactured goods (textiles, iron, steel) for export
markets
 During the ‘60s Japan companies used their profits to switch to more capital-intensive manufacturing (radios,
motorcycles, tvs, automobiles)
 In the ‘70s, Japan corporations took advantage of a highly trained and educated workforce, shifting toward techintensive products (RAM chips, displays, CD-ROMs)
 Japan’s econ achievement gave its banks, corporations, and government a prominent voice in global affairs
 By the 80s they seemed poised to overtake the US
 In the ‘90s it seemed the postwar growth rates were unsustainable
 Japanese econ stumbled into a recession that has continued until the 21st century
 Served as an inspiration for other Asian countries
 The Little Tigers
 The earliest and most successful imitators of the Japanese model were Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and
Taiwan

Their remarkable and rapid growth rates earned the name of the “four little tigers”
 By the ‘80s, these newly industrialized countries had become major economic powers
 Like Japan, all 4 countries had a shortage of capital, lacked natural resources, and had to cope w/overpopulation
 Like Japan, they transformed apparent disadvantages into advantages through a program of export-driven
industrialization
 By the 1990s the four little tigers were no longer imitators but serious competitors
 As soon as Japan found a market niche, the four tigers had corporations move in and undercut the original item
with cheaper versions
 Before long, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia joined the original tigers in their quest for econ dev and prosperity
 Perils of the New Economy
 For the supports of the new global economy, the econ dev of so many Asian societies was proof that globalization
could deliver on the promise of prosperity
 By the late 90s, critics could point to the perils of the new global econ as many of the Asian tigers went from boom
to bust
 At the center of the bust was the financial crisis of ‘97
 In the preceding 20 years, the developing Asian economies had started to embrace the market, opening their
borders to imports and courting foreign investments
 After years of generous lending and growing natl debts, the intl investment community suddenly lost confidence in
the booming economies and withdrew support
 Began in Thailand in mid-‘97
 In quick succession, the Thai stock market lost 75% of its value, and the country was in the grip of a depression
 The financial panic moved to Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Korea
 In each instance, the rise and fall of the individual economies resulted from their integration into the global economy
 Rewarding and punishing with ease
 BRICs
 Contrary to expectations, the nations hit the hardest recovered quickly
 Their recovery was matched by other emerging economies, identified as BRICs bc they include Brazil, Russia,
India, and China
 South Korea and Mexico sometimes included in this
 The govts in the BRICs initiated political and econ reforms that embraced capitalism and allowed their countries to
join the world economy
 To become more competitive, their leaders emphasized:
 Education
 Domestic entrepreneurship
 Foreign investment
 Domestic consumption
 Prediction points to China and India becoming the dominant global suppliers of manufacture goods and services
 Russia and Brazil as dominant suppliers of raw materials
 China is already an economic power
 The Rise of China
 China’s leaders launched econ reforms in the late 70s that reversed some earlier policies
 Opened Chinese markets to the outside world, encouraged foreign investment, and imported foreign tech
 With the econ growing dramatically, in ’92 the gov signaled the creation of a socialist market economy
 In effect, the planned economic system of the past gave way to a market economy
 Demand for goods and services determined production and pricing
 The role of govt was limited to providing a stable but competitive environment
 Besides being a major exporter, China benefited from its large pool of cheap labor and its enormous domestic markets
 Made China the destination for foreign investment capital
 In Dec ’01, China became a member of the WTO
 Moved to global economic superpower status
 Emerging nations scour the earth for raw materials
 Responsible for a steep rise in energy demand and consumption
 Causing an alarming increase in emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution
 The once-poor world is not only getting richer but making its weight felt in intl organization from trade issues to
membership in the security council
 What this all means is that the rich developed countries no longer dominate the global economy like they did in the
19th and 20th centuries
 Some of the emerging economies are simply regaining their former power (China, India)
Trading Blocs
 Intro
 Accepting free trade and open markets mean acknowledging global econ interdependence
 No single econ power could fully control global trade and commerce
 In this rapidly changing economy, groups of nations have therefore entered into economic alliances designed to
achieve advantages and greater strength
 European Union
 The most famous of these is the European Union
 A common market and free trade within Europe
 Started in Mar ’57 w/six nations (France, W Ger, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) at the Treaty
of Rome
 Established the European Economic Community (renamed to European Community in ’67)
 At the heart of this was the dismantling of tariffs and other barriers to free trade among neighbor states
 Subsequent treaties creating political institutions (Council of Ministers, European Parliament) facilitated the longrange goalof European political integration
 The development of a supranational economic org dedicated to increased Euro economic and political integration
culminated in the Maastricht Treaty of ‘93
 Established the European Union- 28 Euro nations have submerged much of their sovereignty to the EU
 18 members have adopted a common currency since ‘99
 Expected to eventually lead a European Political Union
 OPEC
 One of the earliest and most successful economic alliances was the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC), established in 1960
 Oil-producing states of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela; later joined by Qatar, Libya, Abu Dhabi,
Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, and Gabon
 The mostly Arab and Muslims member states sought to raise the price of oil through cooperation
 Demonstrated during the Arab-Israeli War of ’73 that cooperation had political as well as economic potential
 The cartel ordered an embargo on oil shipments to the US and quadrupled the price of oil between ’73 and ‘75
 Triggered a global economic downturn, as did a curtailment of oil exports in the later 70s
 OPECs policies contributed to the global recession and debt crisis that hurt many developing nations
 Its members (also developing) demonstrated how the alliance could exert control over the developed world and its
financial system
 OPEC’s influence diminished in the 80s and 90s as a result of overproduction and dissension among its members over
the Iran-Iraq and Gulf Wars
 ASEAN
 Another well-established economic partnership is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
 Established in 1967 by Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines
 Its main objectives were to accelerate econ dev and promote political stability in SE Asia
 Originally a bulwark against the spread of communism, the economic focus became sharper after it signed
cooperative agreements with Japan in ’77 and the European Community in ‘80
 In ’92 member states agreed to establish a free-trade zone and to cut tariffs on industrial goods over a 15-year
period
 Globalization and its Critics
 The global economy is still a work in progress, and it is not clear what the long-term effects will be on the economies
and societies it touches
 To its supporters, the global economy delivers markets that operate with maximum efficiency, speedily directing
goods and services wherever there is demand for them and always expecting the highest returns possible

Also argue that the new economy is the only way to bring prosperity, similar to the develop world, to the
developing world
 To its critics- nongovernmental organizations like labor unions and tribal-rights activists- the global economy is an
untamed juggernaut that is neither inevitable nor desirable
 Rewards few, impoverishes many
 Diminishes the sovereignty of local and natl govts
 Transfers the power to shape economic and political destinies to transnational corporations and global institutions
such as the WTO
 Also claim that the hallmark of globalization- rapid economic development- is responsible for the destruction of
the environment
 Widening gap between rich and poor societies
 Worldwide homogeneity of local, diverse, and indigenous cultures
 It is certain that globalization has been accompanied by serious social and economic problems
 It is less certain if anyone can succeed in taming its power
Cross-Cultural and Global Communications
 Intro
 The demise of Euro colonial empires, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the cold war brought down
the most obvious political barriers of the post-ww2 era
 Before then, cultural and tech devs had started a similar process of breaching boundaries
 By showcasing the consumer goods of capitalist societies and spreading news of each new chapter in
the fall of communism, tv helped spur the revolutions that ended the cold war
 Like trade and biz organizations, cultural practices have also become globalized
 Thrived on a continuous flow of info, tastes, ideas, and values
 At the turn of the 20th century, local traditions (derived from gender, social class, religious affiliation) still
determined the cultural identity of most ppl
 At the end of the 20th century, due to tech and communication advances, info and cultural practices were
becoming global
Consumption and Cultural Interaction
 Intro
 New communications media have tied the world together and have promoted a global cultural integration
whose hallmark is consumption
 Beginning in the 18th century, industrialization and the rise in per capita income gave birth to a society in
which the consumption of goods and services satisfied wants more than just needs
 Modern consumer culture means more than simple consumption
 Implies consumers wants more than they need and that the items they consume take on symbolic
values
 Has become a means of self-expression
 The shape of this consume culture results from two seemingly opposed trends
 Homogenization of cultural products
 Heightened awareness of local tastes and values
 Critics refer to the homogenization of global culture as the “Americanization” or “McDonaldization”
 Suggest that the consume culture that developed in the mid-20th century has been exported throughout the
world, mainly through advertising
 Symbolized most through spread of food and beverage products
 The closing of cafes and bistros in France, is the result of more French ppl opting for fashionable fast
food instead of the traditional and lengthy lunches
 So successful has the global spread of US mass culture been that it seems to threaten local or indigenous
cultures everywhere
 The export of US products and services is not the sole determinant of global cultural practices
 The new consumer culture stresses the minute differences between products
 Encourages consumer to make purchase decisions based on brand names, fostering differentiation
 Global marketing often emphasized the local or indigenous value of a product
 Pan-American Culture
 The experiences in the Americas demonstrate that US patterns of cultural consumption have not dominated
the globe w/out competition or critical evaluation
 Eva Peron in in Argentina has become an iconic image
 Although Lat Am critics decry that spell of US popular culture, there is a sharing or imposing of cultural
practices is a two-way phenomenon
 Where Latin Americans once called for protection against US culture, by the 90s many had relaxed their
guard
 See evidence of increased cultural sharing among Latin societies- cable television has served as a
means of communication and unity by making the nations of Lat Am more aware ofone another
 While the dominance and size of US entertainment industry keeps cultural sharing lopsided, cultural
dominance is also limited by those societies’ ability to blend and absorb a variety of foreign and indigenous
practices
The Age of Access
 Intro
 Throughout history, tech advances such as ship-building provided the means to dissolve boundaries
between localities and peoples
 Allowed cultural transmission to take place
 Today, virtually instantaneous electronic communications have dissolve time and space
 “The age of access”
 Communication by radio, telephone, tv, fax, and network computers has spawned a global village that
has swept away the social, economic, and political isolation of the past
 However, bc it takes capital to purchase the necessary equipment, maintain and upgrade it, and train ppl to
use it, many societies find it difficult to plug into the global village
 The existing gulf between the connected and unconnected has the potential to become one border in a
world without them
 Preeminence of the English Language
 The new world of interconnectedness is not w/out its detractors
 Mass media is a vehicle for cultural imperialism since most electronic messages emanate from
advanced capitalist societies
 A main consequences is that English is becoming the primary language of global communication
 Restricts vernacular languages to a niche status
 The internet reinforces the fact the English has become the universal tongue of the 21st century
 Mostly due to British colonialism
 More recently, many have voluntarily adopted the language of English
 English has almost become a universal language
 Greatly upsets some groups
 Adaptations of Technology
 Some societies have managed to adapt Euro and US tech to meet their needs while also opposing their
cultural interference
 TV has been used to promoted state building around the world since many TV industries are state
controlled
 Zaire and Mobutu Sese Seko
 The revolution in electronic communications has been rigidly controlled in some societies, where authorities
limit access to foreign servers on the internet
 Harness this power for their own powers
 Iran and China have high levels of govt filtering and surveillance of internet content
Global Problems
 Intro
 By the end of the 20th century, many traditional areas of state responsibility needed to be coordinated on an
intergovernmental level
 Population policies, health concerns, or environmental issues
 Global problems demand global solutions, and together they compelled the govt of individual states to
surrender some of their sovereignty to larger intl organizations like the UN
 Labor servitude, poverty, epidemics, terrorism, and human rights needed attention above the national
scale
Population Pressure and Climate Change
 Intro
 The past 100 years have been accompanies by vast pop increases
 As the result of advances in farming, industry, science, medicine, and social organization, the world
experienced a 5x pop increase over 300 years
 500 million in 1650 to 2.5 billion in 1950
 After WW2 the widespread use of vaccines, antibiotics, and insecticides, along with improvements in
water supplies and increased farming yields, led to a dramatic decline in worldwide death rates
 The rapid decline in mortality among ppl who also maintained high levels of fertility led to explosive pop
growth in many areas of Asia/Afr
 In some nations, pop growth now exceed 3.1%, ensuring pop doubling within 23 years
 In 2013 about 7.2 billion ppl lived, and the UN has predicted we will be at 9.6 billion in 2050
 8.1 million ppl join the world each year
 Unless fertility rates decline to replacement levels (2 children for every family), the world’s pop will grow
forever
 More optimistic voices have pointed out that the odds of a pop explosion and its consequences are
exaggerated and receding
 This decline is partly due to the AIDS crisis, which takes a heavy demographic toll in societies where
fertility rates are high
 Fertility rates have been falling the past two decades in rich and poor societies
 Despite rapid pop growth, wages have risen and the cost of natural resources have declined
 Food production has kept pace with the growing population
 The Planet’s Carrying Capacity
 A large pop changes the earth and its environment
 How many ppl can the earth support?
 By many measures the earth seems to strain to support the current pop
 Some are increasingly convinced that human society cannot infinitely expand beyond the physical limit
of earth and its resources
 Beginning in 1967 a group of intl economists and scientists (Club of Rome) attempted to specify the
limits of economic and pop growth in relation to the capacity of the planet to support humans
 Declared in 1972 that any pop growth over the limits of the earth’s resources would be calamitous
 Two decades later, a report stated that humans cannot sustain their growth
 There are detractors to this idea
 Predicted reserves of major resources (oil, gas, silver, tin, uranium, aluminum, copper, lead, zinc) were
approaching exhaustion and prices would rise
 False for all but tin
 Prices are dropping and continue to do so (except for zinc and manganese)
 Climate Change
 The problem is not simply one of depleting nonrenewable resources or expanding pop
 The growth of pop is the root of many environmental problems
 As ppl are born, pollution increases, more habitats for animals and plants disappear, and more natural
resources are consumed
 Climate change has taken center stage recently
 Usually refers to a human-induced process known as global warming
 The phenomenon of increasing average air temp near the surface over the past two centuries

On the basis of detailed observations, scientists have concluded that the influence of human activities
since industrialization began have altered the earth’s climate
 Most scientists are convinced that most of the observed temp increases since the middle of the 20th
century are caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases
 Prevent solar heat from escaping from the earth’s atmosphere
 Hydrocarbon emissions from automobiles and methane from the stool of farm animals trap heat
within the atmosphere, leading to a rise in global temps
 An average rise of global temp by more than 3.6 degrees F would cause significant economic and
ecological damage
 A vigorous debate is in progress over the extent and seriousness of rising surface temp, their consequences
on the environment, and the necessity to limit further warming
 At the conference in Kyoto in 1997, 187 nations agreed to cut greenhouse emissions
 The Kyoto Protocol went into force in 2005 and imposed targets for carbon emission reductions on
developed countries until 2012
 Did not require developing countries (China, India) to reduce their emissions
 The US did not sign the Protocol since it required nothing of developing countries
 Since Kyoto, global emissions have risen by a third
 Intl efforts have been hampered by a split between developed and developing countries
 Only the developed committed themselves to cutting emissions
 In 2009, delegates from 193 countries met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to renew the Kyoto Protocol
beyond 2012 with tougher limits
 Ended w/out a new protocol or binding extensions to the Kyoto agreements
 The only positive outcome was that developing and developed nations agreed to intl monitoring of any
emissions reductions they promised to pursue
 Population Control
 Population control was politicized for decades
 Developing countries charged industrialized countries with racism when they raised concerns regarding
overpopulation
 Industrialized nations were also accused of trying to safeguard their huge consumption patterns of the
world’s nonrenewable resources
 Luis Echeverria of Mexico even promoted pronatalist ventures, urging citizens to have more children
 The problems caused by rapid pop growth eventually persuaded many govts to control fertility
 By that time, the old notion that a large pop is a source of natl power had given way to the idea that the
best way to promote the health and well-being of a population is to control its growth
 As death rates declined persistently during the late 20th century, reducing birthrates became a central
concern of many govts
 80 countries have adopted birth control programs
 The UN and two of its specialized agencies (World Health Organization and the UN Fund for Population
Activities) have aided many countries in organizing and promoting family-planning programs
 The availability and promotion of contraceptives does not guarantee control of fertility
 China has (stringently) reduced pop growth and some LatAm societies have a decline in birth rates,
people in other societies have resisted efforts to reduce birthrates
 Resistance can stem from both religious and political motives
 In India, Hindu emphasis on fertility has impeded birth control effects
 Global attempts to prevent excessive pop growth have had mixed results
Economic Inequalities and Labor Servitude
 Intro
 The unequal distribution of resources and income, and the resulting poverty, have materialized as key
concerns of the contemporary world
 Several hundred million ppl (esp in developing areas like east Europe, Afr, Lat Am, Asia) struggle daily
for sufficient food, clean water, and adequate shelter
 Poverty is a lack of basic human necessities
 Its effects are both wide-ranging and devastating

Malnutrition among the poor has led to starvation and death
 Also responsible for stunted growth, poor mental development, and high rates of infection
 Vitamin and mineral deficiencies accompany malnutrition, causing mental disorders, organ damage,
and vision failure among poor children and adults
 BC of inadequate shelter, lack of safe running water, and the absence of sewage facilities, the poor have
been exposed more to bacteria and viruses carried by other ppl, insects, and rodents
 Poverty has strongly correlated with higher-than-average infant mortality rates and lower-than-average life
expectations
 The Causes of Poverty
 The division between rich and poor has been a defining characteristic of all complex societies
 Although relative poverty levels within a given society are a major concern, it is the continuing division
between rich and poor societies that has the most attention
 A worldwide shortage of resources as well as the uneven distribution of those resources have been major
causes of poverty and have divided nations into haves and have-nots
 Excessively high pop densities and environmental degradation have caused the depletion of natural
resources
 Lead to shortages of food, water, and shelter, ultimately leading to poverty
 The other major cause of poverty, the unequal distribution of resources, results from 500 years of
colonialism
 Defined by the appropriation of labor and natural resources
 Pervasive poverty characterizes many former colonies and dependencies
 All of these developing societies have tried to raise income levels and eliminate poverty through diversified
econ dev
 Only a few have accomplished their aims (South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia)
 Econ globalization has generated unprecedented wealth for developed nations
 Creates an even deeper divide between rich and poor countries
 A report by the antipoverty charity Oxfam noted that in 2014 the still-growing wealth gap had reached a
point that the world’s 85 richest ppl possessed the same amount of wealth as the world poorest 3.55
billion (half of the world)
 Labor Servitude
 Poor econ conditions have been closely associated with forms of servitude similar to slavery
 Although legal slavery ceased to exist when Saudi Arabia and Angola abolished slavery officially in the
60s, forced and bonded labor practices continue to affect millions of poor ppl in the developing world
 Of particular concern is child-labor servitude
 More than 250 million children between ages 5-14 work around the world, many in conditions harmful to
their physical health and emotional well-being
 Child labor is most pronounced in S/SE Asia where an estimated 50 million children in India alone work
 Most child labor occurs in farming, domestic services, family businesses, and the sex trade
 Make it difficult to enforce existing prohibitions and laws against those practices
 Many children are born into a life of bonded labor
 Their parents worked in debt bondage, where impoverished ppl work for very low wages, borrow
money from their employer, and pledge labor as security
 Trafficking
 A growing & related global problem is the trafficking of persons
 1-2 million humans annually are bought and sold across intl lines and within national boundaries
 In Russia and Ukraine, traffickers lure victims with the promise of well-paying jobs abroad
 Once they arrive in the countries of their destination, they become captives of traffickers who force them
into bonded labor, domestic servitude, or the commercial sex industry through threats and physical
brutality
 Rape, torture, starvation, incarceration, and death
 Most of the victims of trafficking are girls and women, a reflection of the low social/econ status of women in
many countries
 In south Asia, it is common for poverty-stricken families to sell young women to traffickers

The trafficking industry is one of the fastest growing and most lucrative criminal enterprises in the world,
generating billions of dollars annually in profits
Global Diseases
 Intro
 Since the dawn of history, disease has played a major role in the dev of human communities
 Most devastating impact of the Columbian exchange came in the wake of diseases that Euros introduced
 The intro of diseases to pops that lacked immunity killed as many as 90% of the native Americans in 150 years
 The flue swept across the globe in 1918-19, killing between 20-40 mill ppl
 Since then, medical experts and public health officials have scored major victories in their fight against diseases
 Eradicated smallpox and diphtheria
 The UN called for the elimination of all infectious diseases by the year 2000
 The goal was unrealistic and ancient diseases once thought under control are on the rise again (malaria,
tuberculosis)
 Have also identified new lethal diseases like HIV/AIDS
 HIV/AIDS
 The most serious epidemic threat comes from AIDS
 Caused by the HIV virus which slowly attacks and destroys the immune system, leaving the infected individual
vulnerable to diseases that can cause death
 HIV is spread through sexual contact with an infect person, contact w/contaminated blood, or transmission from
mother to child during pregnancy and breast feeding
 Factors contributing to the spread of AIDS include poverty, ignorance, expensive drugs, and sexual promiscuity
 Medical experts identified AID in 1981 among homosexual men and intravenous drug users in New York and San
Francisco
 Evidence appeared among men, women, and children in Sub-Sah Afr, rather quickly AIDS developed into a
worldwide epidemic that affected every nation
 At end of 2012, the # of ppl living with HIV/AIDS was 35.3 million- 30 milloin AIDS death have occurred
 Both number of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths have been declining during the past decade
 Thanks to new drug treatments
 Continued to affect Sub-Sah Afr disproportionately, home to 70% of all new HIV infections in 2012
 New infections on the rise in eastern Europe, central Asia, SW Asia, north Africa
 Although no vaccine has yet emerged to prevent or cure HIV/AIDS, some advances have been made
 When scientists first identified AIDS, there was no treatment
 By 1995, researches had succeeded in developing a new class of drugs known as protease inhibitors
 In combination w/older drugs, they produced highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART)
 Not only prevents AIDS-related illness and death, but also has the potential to significantly reduce the risk of
HIV transmission and the spread of tuberculosis
 These drugs, once prohibitively expensive, but this is too changing
Global Terrorism
 Intro
 Terrorism has become a persistent feature of the globalized world
 Not a recent phenomenon, terrorism has attained its greatest impact in a world distinguished by rapid tech advances
in transportation, communications, and weapons dev
 Heightened media awareness, esp the ubiquity of worldwide media coverage, has exposed the grievances and
demands of terrorists to millions of viewers
 Has also transformed the practice of terrorism
 Acts of terror punctuated the era following WW2, as individuals and groups attempted to destabilize or overthrow
political systems within or outside the borders of their countries
 Terrorism figured prominently in anticolonial conflicts in Algeria and Vietnam
 Struggles over a homeland between natl groups such as Israelis and Palestinians
 Clashes between religious dominations like Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland
 Revolutionary forces and established regimes in lands like Indonesia, Iran, and Nicaragua
 Defining Terrorism
 No universal definition of terrorism
 Key feature is the deliberate and systematic use of violence against civilians
 Aim of advancing political, religious, or ideological causes
 Terrorists use violent means (hijackings, hostage taking, assassinations, mass murder) to magnify their influence
and power
 Limited in size and resources, esp in reference to the populations and institutions they are fighting
 Despite their ability to destabilize societies, terrorist organizations have rarely if ever realized their stated goals
 Terrorist tactics have more commonly discredited otherwise potentially worthy and commendable causes
 During the last decades of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, terrorism increasingly assumed a
global character bc sustained terror campaigns require:
 sophisticated financial support networks
 Reliable and sustained supply of weapons tech
 Places of sanctuary
 Aside from regional traditions such as those emanating from the EU, the intl community did not respond to the
threat of global terrorism in a coherent or unified manner
 The thorny issues of what constitutes terrorism and how to respond gained new attention as a result of terror
attacks against the US in Sept 2001
 11 September
 On the morning of 11 September, NYC and D.C. became the targets of a coordinated terrorist attacks that was
unprecedented in scope, sophistication, and destructiveness
 Hijackers seized four passenger jetliners and used them as guided missiles
 Two crashed into the World Trade Center towers- caused the destruction of the towers and the death of
thousands of people
 Another plane crashed into the Pentagon, the nerve center of the US military in Washington , DC
 The fourth crashed into a field outside Pittsburgh, intended for the White House
 The US govt quickly identified the Islamic militant Osama bin Laden as the mastermind
 Officials accused Bin Laden of directing previous attacks on US interests in Afr/SW Asia
 US president George W. Bush declared war on Osama bin Laden and global terrorism
 Osama bin Laden headed al-Qaeda, the core of a global terrorist network
 Became a popular figure in US-backed effort to aid mujahedeen who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan
 By the end of the Persian Gulf War (1990-91), he began to regard the US and its allies with hatred
 Stationing of US troops on the holy soil of Saudi Arabia, bombing of Iraq, supporting Israeli oppression of
Palestinians were tantamount to a declaration of war against god according to bin Laden
 Called on all Muslims to kill Americans and their allies in 1998
 War in Afghanistan and Iraq
 Another radical manifestation of Islam’s resurgence was the creation of the Islamic State of Afghanistan in 1996 by the
Taliban movement
 The Taliban emerged out of the disorder and devastation of the Afghan-Soviet War (1979-88) and the later civil
war
 Promoting itself as a new force for unity and determined to create an Islamic state with its specific interpretation
 the Taliban proclaimed its followers as the liberators who brought peace to Afghanistan
 Intolerance figured prominently, and Islamist structures alienated ppl both inside and outside Afghanistan
 Dominated by Pashtuns (majority ethnic group of Afgh), the Taliban under its leading mullah, Mohammed Omar,
fought a series of holy wars against other ethnic and Muslims groups, such as Afghan’s Shia minority
 Provided sanctuary and training for Islamist fighters in SW/Cen Asia, notably for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda
 The Taliban had a strict brand of Islam that barred women from education and the workplace
 Women had to be completely veiled in burkas, and men had to eschew neckties and grow full, untrimmed beards
 The stringent form of Taliban-promoted Islam called for a ban on tv, movies, photographs, and most music style
 While having little to do with Islam, a religious police (Ministry of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of
Vice) enforced them with an extremely harsh code of justice
 The UN and others withheld recognition of Taliban as Afghanistan’s legimimate govt
 De jure recognition came to the opposition force, the Northern Alliance, a group of the smaller religious and ethnic
groups
 Became a crucial ally to the US
 When the US govt announced its war against terrorists, it targeted “those harboring terrorists”; govts and states that
supported and provided sanctuary for terrorists
 Refusal of the Taliban govt to surrender bin Laden prompted the US to begin military operations against Taliban
military positions and terrorist training camps
 The US military and it intl allies mostly limited their operations to intelligence missions and massive air strikes
 Afghan proxies fought the war on the ground (Northern Alliance)
 By Nov ’11, bombardments allowed the Northern Alliance to capture Kabul and other key Afghan cities
 The US coalition hampered both the Taliban and al-Qaeda, but conflicts continued
 The war against terrorism beyond Afghanistan promised the war against terrorism would be a long-term struggle
 In mar ’03, Prez Bush led “Operation Iraqi Freedom”, a multinational coalition of 300k soldiers that carried out an
invasion of Iraq to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein and creating a democratic state
 One special target was Hussein’s suspected stockpile of chem/bio weapons, “weapons of mass destruction”, as well
as Hussein himself
 Coalition forces established their supremacy in Iraq, but did not uncover any wmds nor take out Hussein
 Bush called an end on 1 May 2003, and coalition forces have struggle to occupy and stabilize Iraq since then
 Hussein was caught in Dec ’03 and executed in ‘06
 The costs of the Iraq War climbed in terms of deaths and money
 Tens of thousands of Iraq military personnel and civilians died, as had more than 4700 coalition soldiers by mid2010
 US spent $4 billion per month to maintain troops in Iraq
 Some critics in the US and around the globe balked at the president’s aggressive approach to the war on terrorism
 The “Bush Doctrine of Deterrence”, the preemptive strike against Iraq set a troubling precedent in US foreign
policy
 Increased foreign military personnel in Iraq may only serve to intensify the Islamist fervor already fanned by
Osama bin Laden
 US President Barack Obama, elected in ’08 and re-elected in ’12, shifted the war on terror away from Iraq and back to
Afghanistan and bin Laden
 May ’11, killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan
 Ended the war in Iraq in Dec ’11, although Iraqis continued to face intense civil conflict
 Caused the deaths of 4,500 US soldiers, 30,000 wounded, cost $1 trillion, and left an uncertain legacy in both the
US and Iraq
Coping with Global Problems: International Organization
 Intro
 Although the world’s nations and ppl are becoming increasingly interdependent, govts still operate on the basis of a
territorially delimited state
 BC global econ and cultural interdependence demands that political activity focus on cross-societal concerns and
solutions, nations are under pressure to surrender portions of their sovereignty
 As natl borders become less important in the face of new economic and cultural connections, the effectiveness of
natl govts has decline
 Widespread recognition that the natl state is ill equipped to handle problems of a global magnitude has led to an
increase in the increase in the # of orgs dedicated to solving global problems through intl coordination and action
 Categorized as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and governmental organizations, these institutions are
important
 Have the potential to cover problems that do not respect territorial boundaries and are beyond the reach of natl
govts
 Nongovernmental Organization
 Contemporary efforts at global cooperation has precedence in the past
 The Red Cross is a typical NGO, originally dedicated to alleviating the suffering of wounded soldiers, POWs, and
civilians in time of war
 N 1864 the representatives of 12 nations signed the first Geneva Convention, which laid down the rules for the
treatment of the wounded and the protection of medical personnel and hospitals
 Adopted the red cross as a symbol of neutral aid (Muslim countries use a red crescent)
 Later protocols revised and amended the original principles to include noncombatants
 The Red Cross ultimately extended its mission to peacetime, rendering medical aid for victims of natural disasters
 The United Nations
 The premier intl organization is the UN, which superseded the League of Nations (1920-46)
 This association of sovereign nations attempts to find solutions to global problems and to deal with virtually any
matter of concern to humanity
 Unlike a natl parliament, the UN does not legislate
 The representatives of the vast majority of the world’s countries have a voice and a vote in shaping the intl
community of nations
 Under its charter a principal purpose of the UN is to maintain peace and security
 Critics point to its failures to do that in the past
 Iran-Iraq War, civil war in Somalia, Afghan bloodshed
 The UN has compiled an enviable record w/respect to another defined in its charter, achieving intl cooperation in
solving intl problems
 The specialized agencies of the UN have achieved successes
 Eradication of smallpox
 50% decrease in infant and child mortality rates in developing countries
 Increase in female literacy
 Access to safe water
 Human Rights
 Govt and NGOs have focused much of their attention on the protection of human rights
 Idea that all ppl are entitled to some basic rights
 esp rights that protect an individual against state conduct prohibited by intl law or custom
 Originated w/the Greco-Roman natural law doctrines and evolved into specific efforts to protect the rights of
humanity
 Abolition of slavery, implementation of universal suffrage
 Universal recognition and acceptance of the concept of human rights came after WW2
 Esp with the exposure of crimes that the Nazi regime unleashed on its own citizens and all those that had come
under Nazi control during the war
 The Nuremberg trials, deisigned to bring Nazi leaders to justice, challenged the notion of unlimited natl
sovereignty and created the concept of “crimes against humanity”
 Warranted intl judgment and punishment
 In the charter establishing the UN in 1945, 50 member nations pledge to achieve respect and observance of human
rights
 In 1948 the UN National Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 Codified intl human rights laws
 Singled out specific human rights like extrajudicial or summary executions, arbitrary arrest and torture, and
slavery or involuntary servitude; discrimination on racial, sexual, or religious grounds
 The concern for human rights is shared by NGOs such as Amnesty Intl and the Human Rights Watch
 Bring the pressure of world public opinion to bear on offending govts
 By the late 1980s, human rights had emerged as one of the principal themes of global politics
 Given the present level of global interaction, coordination to solve global problems is a necessity
 Collaboration within and between intl organizations has often been inadequate
 This situation hampered progress to finding solutions to critical problems in the middle of the cold war
 Contentious issues have sometimes paralyzed the UN and its affiliated organizations
 Societies at different stages of econ dev have pursued conflicting social and political goals
 Cultural diversity continues to make it difficult for ppl to speak a common language
 Despite the shortcomings of NGO, for the present they represent the closest thing humanity has to a global system
of governance that can help the world’s ppls meet that challenges of intl problems
Crossing Boundaries
 Intro
 Human pop underwent radical transformations
 Ppl throughout the world challenged gender definitions and embarked on large-scale migrations
 Women in Europe, US, China, USSR gained greater equality with men
 Partly by advocating for women’s liberation and a nonbiological or culturally defined understanding
of gender
 Elsewhere, women continued to follow their societies’ dictates for acceptable female behavior
 Extraordinary circumstances propelled some women to prominence even in countries that resisted
the feminist revolution
 Both women and men experienced either forced or voluntary migrations
 In the process, helped create a borderless world
Women’s Traditions and Feminist Challenges
 Intro
 The status of women began changing after WW2
 Women gained more economic, political, social, and sexual rights in highly industrialized states than in
developing nations
 Nowhere have they achieved full equality with men
 While women have been challenging cultural norms requiring their subordination and confinement in the
family, attainment of basic rights for women has been slow
 Agitation for gender equality is often linked to women’s access to employment
 Industrialized nations have the largest percentage of working women
 Women are 40-50% of workforce in industrial societies
 Compared to only 20% in developing
 In Islamic societies, 10% or less
 In all countries, women primarily work in low-paying jobs designed as female (teaching, service, clerical
jobs)
 40% of farmers are women, many at subsistence levels
 Rural African women do most of the continent’s subsistence farming- produce more than 70% of
Africa’s food
 At every level, women earn less than men for the same work
 Generally kept out of the highest-paid professional careers
 Feminism and Equal Rights
 The discrimination that women faced in the workplace was a major stimulus for the feminist movement in
industrialized nations
 Women in most of those nations had gained the right to vote after the Great War
 Found that political rights did not guarantee economic or social equality
 After WW2, when more women went to work, they started to protest job discrimination, pay differentials,
and a lack of legal equality
 In the 60s these complaints expanded into a feminist movement that criticized all aspects of gender
inequality
 In the US, the civil rights movement influenced the women’s movement and provided a training
ground for many women activists
 Women started to expose the ways in which a biologically determined understanding of gender led to their
oppression
 In addition to demanding equality in the workplace, women demanded full control over their bodies and
reproductive systems
 Access to birth control and abortion became essential to women’s liberation
 Only with these would women be able to control whether or when to have children, avoiding the idea
that “biology is destiny”
 The US Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination on the basis of both race and sex
 Introduction of the birth control pill in the 60s and legal protection of abortion in the 70s provided a measure
of sexual freedom

The gender equality than an Equal Rights Amendment would have secured never materialized bc the
amendment failed to achieve ratification
 Gender Equality in China
 Some socialist or communist societies transformed their legal systems to ensure basic equality
 Legally, the position of women most closely matched that of men in (formerly) communist nations like
the USSR, Cuba, and China
 Communist dedication to women’s rights led to improvement in the legal status of Chinese women once
they gained power
 In 1950, Chinese communists passed a law that declared a new democratic marriage system
 Based on free choice of partners, monogamy, equal rights for both sexes, protection of the lawful
interests of women and children
 Abolished patriarchal practices like child betrothal and upheld equal rights for men and women in the
areas of work, property ownership, and inheritance
 Critics argue that despite such laws China’s women have never gained true equality
 Few women have gained high status in the Communist Party’s leadership
 While most women in China have full-time jobs outside the home, they do not receive wages equal
to those of men
 They are able to enter most professions, despite most women engaged in menial work
 Long-standing Confucian values degrade women’s status, especially in rural areas
 Parents also prefer boys over girls due to China’s One-Child Policy
 Leads to a disappearance of many baby girls
 More than ½ million female births go unrecorded
 Causes parents to send baby girls for adoption, raised secretly, or singled out for infanticide
 Domesticity and Abuse
 Although girls and women in industrial and communist nations are guaranteed basic, if not fully equal legal
rights & are educated in roughly the same #s as boys and men, women in other areas have long been
denied access to education
 Expected to stay at home, thus having low literacy rates in places like Arab and Muslim lands
 In some areas, 9/10 women are illiterate
 This is beginning to change
 The same cannot be said for girls and women in India despite advances
 By 2010 female literacy was 50.8%, and women remained largely confined to the home
 Labor force participation is low
 ¼ of all women were engaged in work
 Birthrate remains high even w/greater availability of birth control measures
 This has ensured a life of domesticity for many Indian women
 The prevalence of dowry deaths illustrates the status of women in South Asia
 Families have to pay dowries to the husband and his family
 Difficult for many families to meet
 If the husband and his family perceive the dowry as inadequate, if the husband wants a new wife
w/out returning the dowry, or if the wife has annoyed the husband, the wife is doused w/kerosene
and set on fire
 Can be explained as a cooking accident
 In 2010 there was 8,391 dowry deaths- unofficially closer to 25k
 This is not restricted to India and Hindu women, has spread through south Asia
 In Pakistan more than 500 husbands set fire to their wives from ’94-97
 The motives for burnings go beyond dowries- can be for poor food preparation
 These attitudes may be changing as Indian and Pakistani women activists challenge these practices and
establish shelters for women threatened w/burning
 Women Leaders
 Around the world most women have the right to vote- they do not exert political power in line w/their
numbers
 Some women have obtained high political office
The same south Asia with so many barriers to women’s rights also elevated numerous women to
positions of power
 Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhuto led India and Pakistan
 In 1994 Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga became the first female president of Sri Lanka
 All had parents as politicians
 In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has emerged as a leader, deriving her authority from her father
 Assuming the leadership of the democracy movement after her return from exile in 1988, Suu Kyi called
for a nonviolent revolution against Myanmar’s “fascist govt”
 Placed her under house arrest from 1989 to 1995, during which she created the “gateside meeting”,
speaking to her followers from behind the gates of her home
 In the 1990 election Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory, but were not allowed to come to power
 Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1991, she couldn’t accept the award due to her house arrest
 Remained in detention or under house arrest for much of the next two decades, released in 2010
 She was elected to the Burmese parliament in 2012 and remained committed to the political
democratiziation of Myanmar
 Women demonstrated their leadership abilities in a variety of ways
 Became highly visible political leaders in south Asia, or they more anonymously joined organizations
designed to promote women’s rights
 The UN launched a Decade for Women program in 1975
 Since then global conferences on the status of women have been held regularly
 Even in Iran, where the Islamic revolution severely limited opportunities for women, internal forces
transform the image and role of women
 Today patrols walk the streets of Tehran making sure that women conform to the society’s rule of
dress and behavior
 During the war w/Iraq, women became revolutionaries, picking up guns and training
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Migration
 Intro
 Migration, the movement of one place to another, is as old as humanity and has shaped the formation and
identity of societies throughout the world
 The massive influx of outsiders has transformed the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural composition of
indigenous pops
 With industrialization in the 18th century, there became two types of migration: internal and external (intl)
migration
 Internal is the flow of ppl from rural to urban areas with a society
 External migration is the movement of ppl across long distances and intl borders
 Both types of migration result from both push and pull factors
 Lack of resources (land, food), pop pressure, religious/political persecution, discriminatory practices
against ethnic minorities cause people to move
 Also, opportunities for better employment, the availability of arable land, or better services such as
health care and education pull ppl to new locations
 In the most general sense, migration is caused by differences
 BC differences are widening between societies, the potential for migration has increased
 Internal Migration
 The largest human migrations today (and since industrialization) are rural-urban flows
 These internal migrations led to rapid urbanization in much of the world
 Today the most highly urbanized societies are west/north Euro, Australia, New Zealand, & temperate
S/N America
 Proportion of pop in urban areas exceeds 75%; in some countries (Belgium) it exceed 97%
 Do see a bit of reverse migration in some developed societies
 The tropical areas of LatAm are in intermediate urbanization w/50-65% of pops living in cities
 In many countries in Afr/Asia, urbanization is just beginning
 While most ppl still live in rural areas, the rate of urbanization is very high
 Urbanization
 Urbanization has been difficult for rural folk who have chosen or been forced to adjust to a new way of life
 In LatAm, Afr, and S Asia, large numbers of ppl have migrated to metropolitan areas in search of relief
from rural poverty
 Once in the city, they often find themselves destitute
 Life is bleak in the slums of Mumbai; shantytowns around Kinshasa or Nairobi; barrios, barriadas,
villas miserias of Lima, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires
 More than 10 million cram in Calcutta, Cairo, and Mexico City, straining the city’s resources
 The few services originally available to the slum dwellers (potable water, electricity, medical care)
have diminished w/the influx of new ppl
 Among the unemployed and underemployed, disease runs rampant, and many suffer from
malnutrition
 External Migration
 A combination of voluntary/forced intl migration has transformed the human landscape, esp during the last
500 years
 Between the 16th-20th centuries, more than 60 Euro migrants colonized the Americas, Australia,
Oceania, and north Asia
 Between 1820 and 1980, 37 million Euro migrants made their way to the US
 Slave migrations supplemented those voluntary movements of ppl
 Between 16th-20th centuries, slave traders sent 12 million Africans to the Americas, although
many died on the voyage
 During WW2 the Nazi regime initiated the largest mass expulsions of the 20th century
 Deported 8 million ppl to forced-labor sites and extermination camps
 Following the war, the Soviet regime expelled 10 million ethnic Germans from east/centr Euro and sent
them back to Germany
 The largest migrations in the 2nd half of the 20th century have consisted of refugees fleeing war
 1947 partition of India resulted in the exchange of 6 million Hindus from Pakistan and 7 million Muslims
from India
 More than 45 million ppl worldwide have been forcibly displace by 2013 due to conflict and persecution
 More than 15 million of those were refugees who fled their home
 30 million were ppl who remained displaced within their homelands
 Many of these migrants left their home countries bc they wanted to escape the ravages of war, but economic
inequality has caused most intl migration
 Ppl leave their country of birth in search of better jobs and more readily available health care, education,
and other services
 The most contemporary mass migrations involve movement from developing countries to developed
ones
 Since 1960 some 13 million “guest workers” from souther Euro, Turkey and north Africa have taken up
permanent residence in west Europe
 More than 10 million permanent migrants (mostly from Mexico) have entered the US
 Foreigners currently make up more than half the working pop in the oil-producing countries of SW Asia
 130 million ppl currently live outside their country of citizenship
 A “nation of migrants” equivalent to Japan’s pop
 Migrant Communities
 Intl mass migrations have accelerated and broadened the scope of cross-cultural interaction
 After their arrival on foreign shores, migrants established cultural and ethnic communities that
maintained their social customs and native languages
 The sound of foreign languages as well as the presence of ethnic foods, arts, and music have
transformed large cities into multi-cultural environments
 Although the arrival of migrants has enriched societies in many ways, it has also sparked resentment and
conflict
 Ppl in host countries often believe that foreigners and their ways of life undermine national identity
 Especially if defined by language and other cultural characteristics
 Beyond that, many citizens of host societies view migrants as competitors for jobs
 Are often willing to work for low wages and not join labor unions
When unemployment climbs, migrants frequently are blamed
In many countries, govts have come under pressure to restrict immigration or even expel foreign
residents
 Xenophobia, fear of foreigners, has sometimes produced violence and racial tension
 Skinheads in England assaulted members of ethnic minority groups
 Neo-Nazis in Germany bombed the community centers of Turkis workers
 While migrants are reshaping the world outside their home countries, intl mass migration poses challenges
both to the migrants and to the host society
 Transient Migrants
 A more recent and transient form of migration is tourism
 Although travelers have established cultural links between societies since the beginning of recorded
history, travel mainly took place in connection w/military conquest, religious pilgrimage, trade, or
diplomacy
 If more ppl did not travel, it was bc most had little incentive to leave their homes, esp when transport was
slow, expensive or inconvenient
 Travelers were considered courageous or foolish
 Industrial society gave birth to mass tourism
 Provided safer and faster transport
 Institutionalized two modern features of social life- leisure and travel
 In the early and mid-1800s, it became fashionable for affluent Euros to travel
 Later in the century, working class began to copy these trends
 Took to the road during holidays and escape the grime of the industrial city
 In the process, created working-class pleasure zones
 Ppl journeyed for pleasure and engaged in activities they normally did not do
 By the 20th century, leisure travel took on added symbolic value when they could show off their wares
 After WW2, companies created the packaged tour, enabling millions of tourists to swarm across the world
 Middle-class tourists, new age travelers, and ecotourists move across the planet
 Effects of Mass Tourism
 Travel and tourism have become the largest industry on the planet
 Sustained by growing personal wealth, which supports move tourists, and by cheaper and more efficient
transport, esp the jet plane
 In 2010, tourism grossed $5.7 trillion, or almost 10% of the worlds gross output
 Provided work for 255 million ppl
 The attraction of an industry that generates wealth and jobs relatively quickly (often w/minimal investment)
has served as a powerful incentive for both govts and businesses in the developed and developing worlds to
promote tourism
 On the downside, tourism creates low-paying jobs, and most of the profits flow to the developed world
where most of the major tourism businesses are located
 The travel boom has also sparked concerns connected to the cultural impact of mass tourism
 Has acted as a globalizing influence, sometimes initiating dramatic and irreversible changes within the
cultural traditions of host communities
 Large numbers of visitors can transform local cultural traditions into commodities which are then
consumed like any other commodities
 Religious rituals, ethnic rites, and festivals are reduced and sanitized to conform to tourist expectation
 “Reconstructed ethnicity”
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