Baylis, Smith and Owens: The Globalization of World Politics

Short answer questions

Define globalization (40 words or less).

Globalization is a concept which refers to the widening, deepening, and acceleration of

worldwide connectivity or interconnectedness.

What are the four ‘waves’ of globalization?

The first wave of globalization is the Age of Discovery (1450-1850), where globalization was
decisively shaped by European expansion and conquest
The second wave (1850–1914), often referred to as the “belle époque” or the “Pax
Britannica”, involved a dramatic expansion in the spread and entrenchment of European
empires, followed by the collapse of globalization in 1914.
The third wave of contemporary globalization (since the 1960s) marks a new epoch of global
connectivity which many argue exceeds that of the belle époque, and the fourth wave of
globalization is believed to be now in the making, driven by new digital technologies and the
emerging economic powers of China, Brazil, and India.

Define ‘time-space compression’ in the context of contemporary global politics (25

words or less).

Time-space compression refers to the impact of new technologies of mobility and

communication effectively ‘shrinking’ geographical space and time.

What is ‘deterritorialization’?

Deterritorialization is a process in which the organization of social activities is increasingly

less constrained by geographical proximity and national territorial boundaries. It is
accelerated by the technological revolution, and refers to the diminution of influence of
territorial places, distances, and boundaries over the way people collectively identify
themselves or seek political recognition. This permits an expansion of global civil society but
equally an expansion of global criminal or terrorist networks.

What are the three engines of globalization?

Globalization has three engines; technics, economics and politics.

Technics; central to any account of globalization, since it is a truism that without a modern
communications infrastructure, a global system or worldwide economy would not be
possible.

Economics; crucial as technology is, so too is globalization’s specifically economic logic.

Capitalism’s insatiable demand for new markets and profits leads inevitably to the
globalization of economic activity.

Politics; shorthand here for ideas, interests, and power, politics constitutes the third logic of
globalization. If technology provides the physical infrastructure of globalization, politics

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provides its normative infrastructure. Governments, such as those of the US, China, Brazil,
and the UK, have been critical actors in nurturing the process of globalization

What is a ‘multiplex order’?

This is a global order which is: decentred: there is no global hegemon or Western
hegemony, but instead many powers; diverse: it is less US- and Western-centric than the
liberal world order, more global in scope, and inclusive; complex: there are multiple and
overlapping levels of governance, while the world is highly interconnected and
interdependent; pluralistic: there are many actors or agents, not just states; power, ideas,
and influence are widely diffused.

Briefly, what is the sceptical view of globalization?

The sceptical argument contends that globalization is a highly exaggerated and superficial
phenomenon—a myth or ‘conceptual folly’ that distracts attention from the primary forces
which determine world politics: state power, geopolitics, nationalism, capitalism, and
imperialism.

Briefly, how does the rise of authoritarianism threaten the legitimacy of the
consensus that promoted and sustained globalization for many decades and the
consensus underlying the liberal world order?

The rise of authoritarianism presents a growing normative challenge to the liberal world
order, since the norms and values that underpin it are increasingly openly contested and
resisted. Furthermore, authoritarian regimes seek to restrict globalization.

What two developments characterize Globalization 4.0?

Digital globalization and globalization “with Chinese characteristics”

How is economic globalization measured?

By global flows of capital, trade, and production.

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Essay questions

What, in your view, are the positive aspects of globalization?

Globalization brings to the world (or to parts of it) several positive effects, such as cheap
imports, considering there is a global competition, an open economy that favours the
creation of fresh new ideas to highlight in a very wide market, the possibility of work-
searching abroad, normally with higher salaries, and a growth of productivity as supplying is
not only required nationally but also internationally.

Goods can be used internationally, and there will always be a country where your leftovers
may be required, which leads us to a healthier and greener world where everything is trying
to be used until the end. International cooperation and globalizations leaves higher living
standards to the middle and the high classes.

What, in your view, are the negative aspects of globalization?

Unfortunately, globalization does also have negative aspects. The stated possibility of
searching work abroad leaves another part of the population (usually less preparated)
without their jobs, as better workers have arrived from other parts of the world, increasing
the competition massively and forcing them to move to worse jobs, where they will be paid
less.

The incredible competitiveness between countries and companies makes them make pay-
cuts to maximize profits, or to establish new factories in low-income countries where the job
possibilities are so low they can pay so much less. This is an increase in inequality that
globalization brought, along with the difficulties for the domestic firms to have a place on the
market, where international and already big companies have a global monopoly.

How does globalization challenge traditional theories of world politics?

The traditional theories, poststructuralism, postcolonialism, and some feminist

theory would tend towards anti-foundationalism, whereas neorealism and neoliberalism
would tend towards foundationalism.

Foundationalism is the view that some beliefs can justifiably be held by inference from other
beliefs, that are directly justified on rational intuition or perception by the senses, while anti
foundationalism is the position that rejects it.

What are the main challenges to the state in the current era of globalization?

As the current era of globalization can be considered a multiplex order (a world shaped by
multiple by highly interdependent actors), the main challenges that states must cope with are
fundamentally approaching peace and stability.

Globalization, as seen before, leaves a big growth on inequality. It favours the developed
countries and does not favour low-income countries, indeed it affects them negatively.
Developed countries use their powers to gain the goods of the non-developed countries at a

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low cost, not only material but also human goods, as the necessity of money by many of the
inhabitants of these countries leaves them in position to do enormous work for big
companies (for example, clothing brands like Nike in Asia) for very low amounts of money.
This does not only involve adults but also children. And the removement of good of the poor
countries can cause civil problems. World peace and stability have never been achieved,
and globalization has not helped to solve them. It is a big challenge whose solving is needed
as soon as possible.

Do you think globalization can be reversed? Why or why not?

Globalization can not be reversed. It is an economic movement of such a big size that there
is nothing that can take it back to where we were before its start. But it definitely can be
slowed down, and we saw it not very long ago.

With the Covid-19 pandemic, globalization had a major slowing. With the closing of borders
and the stop of international travelling (and part of the international commerce) we could
experience sort of how would the actual world be without globalization, and it was proved
how the global economy, already dependant on international trading, had a major crisis that
is now (when the pandemic is on its way of finishing) recovering.

How has the 2008 global financial crisis impacted globalization?

The 2008 crisis was one of the biggest issues globalization has had throughout its history.
Affecting several countries simultaneously, it left a situation unseen since the Great
Depression.

It impacted in the way that many countries had to reduce their activity abroad, with
investments becoming shorter and shorter as the risk growth proportionally inverse. The
foreign banks grew more locally than crossing borders, fragmenting.

All this situation left a fragmented world where globalization (which was growing with the
increase of global internet use) stopped drastically, although it finally became a point of
inflexion for it to explode internationally in what has been the decade of globalization, and is
now the era of globalization.

How might a post-Western liberal order differ from the liberal world order?

A post-Western global order is not necessarily an anti-Western order, but rather a

non-Western order: an order of neither confrontation nor chaos. Neither, too, is the world
witnessing the demise of globalization.

The different architecture this post-Western global order has is already visible, signifying a
remarkably profound transformation in world politics.
Whether the transition to this new order is peaceful or conflictual is perhaps the most critical
and controversial issue in contemporary world politics, for on this will depend whether the
twenty-first century, as with the twentieth, is defined by the spectre of great power
war or a continuing ‘long peace’.

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Do you believe that the emerging global order will be a ‘multiplex order’? Why or why
not?

A “multiplex order” is a global order which is decentred, diverse ,complex and pluralistic.
It is decentered because there is no global hegemon or Western hegemony, but instead
many powers. In the emerging global order this is happening, as we can find not a global
hegemon as the United States has been, but different and several powers with more or less
equal importance, such as China, Russia, the United States or emerging countries like India
that may have an incredible relevance in the future.

A multiplex order is diverse as it is less US- and Western-centric than the liberal world order,
more global in scope, and inclusive. Just like the emerging global order is. And a multiplex
order is complex because there are multiple and overlapping levels of governance, while the
world is highly interconnected and interdependent. The emerging global order follows this
pattern as globalization is one of the main characters.

The emerging global order will also be pluralistic: there are many actors or agents, not just
states; power, ideas, and influence are widely diffused. International organizations like the
United Nations or the World Health Organization have an enormous influence in nowadays
and in the future world.

According to this chapter, in some respects, the most significant threats to

globalization and the liberal world order now emanate from the US and within the
West. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

I agree with this statement as the United States are the most interested country in not losing
the actual global order, the order that has been existing since the Cold War ending where
they are a global hegemon, establishing a liberal world order that is close to its end with the
enormous growth of countries like China, that threat their hegemony and that may surpass
their powers in a few years.

A world where there are many super powers stops being a hegemony. It opens a new
chapter that does not please the United States and that will do whatever it takes to maintain.

According to this chapter, some argue that a fourth wave of globalization is now in
the making. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

The third wave of globalization started, according to the book, in the 1960s, marking a new
epoch of global connectivity.
Indisputably, things have changed and they are not the same as in the 1960s. We are in a
new wave, a wave were new technologies have completely became a fundamental part of
everyones and everyday's lives, and were a digitalization is absolutely conquering the world,
with the emergence of new world powerhouses like China, India or Brazil that did not had a
word to say back in the 1960s when this third wave started.

In my opinion, the fourth wave has been running since the appearance of the first
smartphone, the iPhone, back in 2007.

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Compare the realist and Marxist variants of the sceptical view of globalization. How
are they similar? How do they differ? Are you convinced by either of these
arguments? Why or why not?

In realism, world politics (or, more accurately for realists, international politics) represents a
struggle for power among states, with each trying to maximize its national interest.
Such order as exists in world politics is the result of the workings of a mechanism known as
the balance of power, whereby states act so as to prevent any one state from dominating.
Thus, world politics is all about bargaining and alliances, with diplomacy as a key
mechanism for balancing various national interests.

For Marxist theory, the most important feature of world politics is that it takes place in a
highly unequal world capitalist economy. In this world economy the most important actors
are not states but classes, and the behaviour of all other actors is ultimately explicable by
class forces. Thus states, multinational corporations, and even international organizations
represent the dominant class interest in the world economic system.

I agree in some parts with the realism theories, as I believe that when in international
relations, all of the states are more concerned about getting the best for their countries than
for searching for a common profit, as we can see almost in any international meeting that
takes place, even in the United Nations. Anyway, I think this is something natural and
inherent in every human being, as we are all selfish in part, but we can not leave appart that
a common benefit is also a benefit for ourselves and the countries we/they defend.

To what extent is the current era of globalization characterized by a denationalization

of power in world politics? Discuss with reference to specific examples.

Denationalization highlights the fact that national borders are of declining relative
significance to the organization of contemporary social, economic, cultural,
and political affairs.

A big example of this can be seen in the Schengen Space. The Schengen Space is the
almost without borders special space in the European Union and some associated countries
where the migration is not regulated nor restricted and an international exchange of products
and several special treats take place between the member countries. Globalization has
decreased the relevance of the international borders in a way that international organizations
are taking the places that states used to have, and there are very few countries that act on
their own. The denationalization of power is and will be one of the protagonists of the current
and future era of globalization and to the new global order.

In what ways has globalization been experienced unevenly across the world and even
within countries? Discuss with reference to specific empirical examples.

Globalization includes “global”, but it surely has not been “global”, as inequalities between
the countries and regions of the world have not decreased but increased. While the Western

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and developed countries have seen their economies grow and their industrialization
increase, in the low-income countries, like the ones in Central Africa and Asia, globalization
has not had a positive effect.

Even in the developed countries, there are specific regions where globalization has not had
a positive impact. For example, in our country, Spain, it can be seen in regions like Castilla
La-Mancha. Globalization and the entrance of Spain in the European Union have favoured
an incredible growth of the city of Madrid, the capital of Spain. This has had an effect of
attracting all the cities around the capital, like Toledo or Cuenca in Castilla La-Mancha or
Segovia and Ávila in Castilla y León, leaving cities almost without young people and in a big
risk of depopulation in a few years, while the big cities of the country, like Madrid, Barcelona
or Valencia keep growing. But this is an issue that does not only affect Spain. France, Italy,
Germany… all the cities around megacities are slowly decreasing their population while
feeding their big cities. Will globalization mean the disappearance of the medium-small cities
and leave all the countries with only a few points of populations where all the activities are
focused?

How have the revolutions in modern transport and communication technologies

enabled contemporary globalization? Discuss with reference to specific
examplesation?

Not so long ago, the proposal of the new high velocity train across the European Union was
presented by a political party in the European Parliament. A train that would connect (even
more) the countries that belong to the Union. Travelling has become easier than ever.
Trains, plains, ships, cars… nowadays it is possible to travel to any country in the world for
not a very expensive price and this has been a fact that has favoured massively
globalization.

With programmes like the Schengen Space where not even a passport is required to cross a
country, and the facilities of the communication that the new technologies have brought us, it
seems logical the growth of globalization. Everything is so international now that you can
travel to Germany and back in the same day, or you can video call your friend in Vancouver
while you are in Madrid. Everything is connected.