Globalization: Little 'g' vs. 'G'

Little 'g' Globalization

• Represents actual global interdependency concerning resources, power, and economics
• Globalization is extension, acceleration, and intensification of interconnectedness worldwide
• Though increasing, it's an uneven process
• In early stages, imperialism and capitalism equated to globalization
• Produces an interconnected, unequal, and uneven global economy

'G'lobalization

• A political term from the 1980s, used by politicians and economists
• It describes and produces global interdependence
• Key traits include international trade, commodity chains, immigration
• Also supranational institutions, cross-border culture, international financial flows, and interdependent economic development
• Driven by economic forces, competition, and individual actions
• Characterized by geography that is flattening, shrinking, homogenizing, and networked
• Neoliberal globalization adopts rules promoting cross-border flows of goods and finance
• Supports privatization of national industries and limits on subsidies
• Bad economic policies are seen as cause of poverty, countered by embracing free-market systems

Embedded Liberalism/Keynesian Liberalism

• Involves the rise of social safety nets, public education, and subsidies
• Promotes international trade while limiting financial flows
• Embodied by FDR's New Deal

Neoliberalism

• Not inherently anti-migration
• Promotes free-market economic policies advanced by politicians
• Emerged during the Reagan and Thatcher era
• New liberalism means free market strategies increasing global interdependence by shrinking government
• Links "economic + personal freedom"
• Seen in the coup in Chile and the Chicago Boys' neoliberalism in 1973

Washington Consensus

• An agreement where countries committed to free-market policies to receive US aid
• Included 10 elements

10 traits of Washington Consensus

• Liberalize trade
• Privatize public services
• Deregulate business and finance
• Cut public spending
• Reduce taxes
• Encourage foreign investment
• De-unionize
• Export-led development
• Reduce inflation
• Enforce property rights

Imperialism

• A broad movement from the early 15th century, involving taking over territories and countries
• Closely tied to capitalism
• It's the extension of one state's power beyond its border to control people, place, and cultures
• Driven by desire for cheap resources, coerced labor, and new markets
• Results in an interconnected, uneven, and unequal capitalist global economy

Imperial Legacies

• The twin processes of Capitalism and Imperialism produced a globalized world
• There are economic and demographic legacies
• All legacies are obscured by methodological nationalism

Economic Imperial Legacies

• Integrated markets, transnational commodity chains, and uneven development
• West industrialized, with higher wages and SOL
• Rest less industrialized, dependent on primary commodities, lower wages + standards

Demographic Imperial Legacies

• Originated as "We are here because you were there!"
• Many impacted imperial colonies have people who end up emigrating into imperial countries (e.g. Algerians in France)
• National Borders: decolonization which resulted in new nation-states, less unity, and border conflicts
• Environmental: resource extraction, uneven carbon footprints, and intensification of export agriculture

"West and the Rest"

• A discourse that began during imperialism justifying an "us" versus "them" mentality
• Uses binary categories to justify treating others as inferior
• Encourages stereotyping through simplification, essentialization, and homogenization
• Creates dualisms with binary, opposite, hierarchical categories
• Produces imperial domination, racialized social and labor hierarchies, European identity, and Western social science
• Involves a concept of a developmental ladder

Structural Adjustment Programs

• Original methods used by IFIs and the West to give loans to the Global South struggling in debt crises
• Money was loaned with "conditionalities," requiring free-market policies
• Damaged small economies in Africa that had succeeded in the 60s and 70s
• Conditionalities included cuts to social spending, privatization, and encouragement of foreign investments
• Damaged the Global South economy because they all started producing the same crops which led to inflation

Liberal International Economic Order (LIEO)

• Global norms for economic practices and rules every country should follow
• Predates neoliberalism
• It is influenced by and benefits the US, framed as best option for all
• Includes three pillars

3 key pillars of LIEO

• Political liberalism
• Economic liberalism
• Liberal internationalism
• Holds the idea that equal treatment leads to equality
• Created after WWII, benefiting the US economy and claimed to benefit others
• Criticism of free trade, the rise of BRICs, and the use of industrial policies led to the LIEO's demise

Challenges to the LIEO

• US Hegemony leads to critiques of new imperialism, declining economic power, and US hypocrisy
• Political Liberalism faces challenges from China's success without democracy and criticism of US selective support
• Liberal Internationalism impacted by international conflicts, disregard for treaties, and failed global cooperation
• Economic Liberalism faced critiques after Chinese growth, the 2008 financial crisis, and effects on rich countries
• Fairness as equal rules fails due to persistent inequality, climate change effects, and disconnect between rules and US interests
• Globalization discourse is criticized for persistent inequality, increasing conflict, and authoritarianism

Aspects of Liberalism

• Political liberalism promotes Western-style democracy and human rights
• Economic liberalism supports free trade and open markets
• Liberal internationalism advocates respect for state borders and inter-state cooperation
• Multilateral institutions such as the UN and WTO

BRICS

• Brazil, Russia, India, and China with the potential appeal of China model, and South Africa
• Represents reorganization of global geopolitical and economic hierarchies
• Cheaper goods than G7 nations
• Not only China

Rise of China

• The West believed China joining WTO would make it more economically and politically liberal, yet it hasn’t
• Ended up hurting the WTO
• Heightened tension between two core systems of multilateral trading system

Fairness Considerations

• Defining fairness as universal rules versus fairness as rules making things equal

"China paradox"

• Includes both Hopewell and Rising China
• It is experiencing declining US economic and institutional power
• China does not want to change the rules of LIEO; the US has become revisionist
• Increasing turn to unilateral trade deals
• Growing protectionism (Trump, Biden, Trump) // industrial policies

US Hegemony

• And the challenges to it

Climate Change

• A product of, and a crisis for globalization
• Global Warming reflects average, human-induced warming
• Climate Change includes more extreme weather
• Poses risks for all people everywhere
• Product of imperialism, capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution that create more carbon emissions
• Increased standards of living and consumption

Climate Change Issues

• It is a global problem, with uneven responsibility and vulnerability
• Crisis for increasing costs and economic disruptions
• Declining standards of living
• Increasing migration within and between countries
• Increasing urbanization and slum formation
• Violent, intra- and international conflict
• Resurgent nationalism, xenophobia, + border closures
• Failures of international institutions and corporations
• Climate change is a product and a challenge to globalization

Climate Change Examples

• Measures in Bangladesh vs Netherlands for de-flooding
• Singapore vs Global South heat

Climate Change Mitigation

• Involves lowering overall energy use
• Green energy transition, increasing energy efficiency, and CO2 removal
• "Likely that warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius and harder to limit warming below 2 degrees"
• Primarily a national responsibility

Climate Change Adaptation

• Reducing effects and dealing with the warming
• Ecosystem restoration, green infrastructure, social safety nets
• "Current adaptation gaps will continue to grow ... financial flows are insufficient, esp in developing countries"

Paris Agreement

1. Temperature: Keep global temperature increase below 2C and pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C
2. Greenhouse Gas Pollution: 186 countries submitted plans detailing how they reduce their greenhouse gas pollution through 2025 or 2030
3. National Plans: Overall assessment of how countries are doing in cutting their emissions compared to their national plans starting in 2023, every five years
4. $100 Billion: $100 billion a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with commitment to further finance in the future
5. Rich Countries: Rich countries to engage in absolute reductions in emissions, developing ones to continue enhancing their mitigation efforts
6. Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Countries should reach global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions asap

US vs China on Climate Change

• US is the world's largest per capita emitter and biggest oil and gas producer
• The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allocates nearly 400 billion dollars over several years
• Act is currently being challenged by China at the WTO
• China is the world's biggest carbon emitter, aiming for peak emissions in 2030
• China is the world's biggest user and investor in renewable energy, producing most of world's clean energy equipment
• In 2022, they spent 546 billion dollars on energy transition
• In 2023, added 300 gigawatts of wind + solar
• Over half of new cars are electric

Renewable energy fix

• Can solve the problem primarily by switching to renewable energy(solar, wind, etc)
• Already carbon in atmosphere
• Needs huge amount of resources
• Paradox: increasing efficiency/cheapness of a resource leading to an increase in consumption

Technological fix

• We can innovate our way out of climate problems
• Green energy improvements, carbon capture at source, CO2 removal from atmosphere, geo-engineering options

Market fix

• Can incentivize our way out fo climate change (i.e. carbon tax, carbon markets)
• Problems:
• Basically "redistributing carbon"
• What price? → financialization of climate crisis

Socioeconomic fix

• Must transform society to reduce energy needs + support sustainable development
• Change consumption habits? Reject capitalism? Reject neoliberalism? Embrace indigenous approaches?

Anthropocene

• People → Climate Change
• Refers to the period when humans have had a substantial impact on/become the dominant force shaping the environment
• Geological//Popular Anthropocene
• Some humans are responsible: owners of capital, imperial powers, owners of plantations/slaves/factories/banks

Capitalocene

• Capitalism → Climate Change
• Refers to the period during which a small # of people engaged in the capitalist pursuit of profit(+imperialism) become the dominant force shaping the environment

To understand planetary crisis today

• one must look at capitalism as a world-ecology of power, production, + reproduction (includes social movement)

• Great innovation was practice of appropriating nature

• Commodity + Civilizational Fetishism cheapens most humans

• Industrial Revolution + Capitalism Planetary Crisis + Insane Waste

Climate Debt

• Global North:
• Produced most carbon
• Extracted resources from South
• Grew wealthy
• Global South:
• Lost ecological resources
• Suffers most from climate change
• Needs fuel most to catch up
• Should South be asked to give up economic growth? Will North pay for South?

Climate Reparations

• Facilitate sustainable development:
• Reducing climate change lessens risks to vulnerable populations, increases food+water insecurity, etc.
• Reducing fossil fuels reduces pollution
• Impeded sustainable development:
• Biofuels competing with food supply
• Reduction in fossil fuels for dependent economies w/o global investment in green energy

Debt repayment options

• Wealthy countries have the responsibility to repay this debt by:
• Funding green energy+sustainable development in Global South
• Make climate-friendly tech developments freely available+relax migration policy

Global Health

• Area of study/practice focusing on transnational health issues + solutions
• Emphasizing local+global health problems and inequalities

Health and globalization

• Increases average wealth+living standards

• Technological improvements in medicines, vaccines, etc.

• Rise of global health institutions+NGOs

• Global supply chains for medicine, equipment, etc.

• Also: colonial legacies, uneven development(profiting off of inequalities), 'G'lobalization policies

• Modern vs traditional medicine//top-down vs bottom-up(states/medical organizations vs grassroots)

• Vertical(disease specific)vs horizontal(broad, basic healthcare)

• State run vs private vs community-organized human rights vs commodity

Alma Ata Conference

• Middle of Cold War (both sides agree)
• General agreement on limits of medical elitism, urban bias, top-down approach
• Forged international support for universal healthcare access by 2000 calling for "primary healthcare(PHC)"
• NEVER ACTUALLY IMPLEMENTED
• Lack of specific plans for funding+rise of neoliberalism(1980s debt crises)

Primary Healthcare(PHC)

• Health care as human right
• Horizontal comprehensive approaches//equal access for urban+rural residents
• Local doctors+community-based medicine, combination of Western and local medicineChina+India
• Health seen as key marker of "development"
• Requiring: public health education, sufficient food supply, safe water+sanitation, emphasis on child+maternal care, immunization, control of local, endemic cases

Vertical vs Horizontal Healthcare

• Vertical healthcare addresses specific diseases
• Horizontal healthcare establishes broad programs

Selective Primary Health Care(SPHC)

• Supposed to be "inter-rim measure" became dominant model under neoliberalism
• Framed in market terms/cost-benefit analysis/highest health return per dollar/health as driver of economic development
• Key Successes:
• Widespread immunizations against important diseases
• Big reductions in child mortality
• Limited scope
• Top-down/vertical
• Technical fixes rather than community development
• Ignored broader health improvements

GOBI-FFF

• Growth Monitoring, Oral Rehydration Therapy, Breastfeeding, Immunizations
• Easy to monitor/measure
• Low cost/high impact
• Critics say GOBI was a Band-aid covering deficient health systems
• Implemented by UNICEF-health based international organizations
• one set of priorities
• FFF-was added later in 1990s (food supplementation, female education, family planning)

Structural Adjustment/neoliberalism/'G' and health

• Structural adjustment:
• Reduced spending on public health, infrastructure, sanitation
• Privatization of health services
• User fees for health services
• Overall drop in#of gvmt. Spending on healthcare, # of doctors per capita, health coverage, underconsumption of existing health services
• Neoliberalism:
• Market-based healthcare
• Health as commodity, cost-effectiveness, preference for privately-run health services

US (1980s)

• Widespread privatization of US healthcare
• More choice in amount types of insurance, doctors, etc.
• Shorter wait times for some services
• US spends the most of healthcare: per capita+in total BUT has performed worse than most nations/low satisfaction

PEPFAR

• US-run global health program, initiated in 2003
• Invested over 100 billion
• Provides anti-retroviral treatments, testing, clinical services

Vaccine nationilism

• Rich countries hoard drug+medical supplies

Covid Response

• Government health+social interventions
• Renewed health care debates about
• State-funded income vs private healthcare provision
• Massive economic interventions (stimulus spending, monetary easing policies)
• Major challenge to neoliberal ideas about "free market", small gvmt.
• Much less stimulus spending

Covid response globally

• Trade+supply chain disruptions were short-lived but had major impacts on policy debates
• Increasing concerns about national "economic security"
• Another spun to "re-" and "friend-shoring"policies
• Increased national competition for key supply chains, minerals, etc.

Migration patterns

• Most migrants move from poor to richer countires

Why do people migrate?

• Push Factors:drive people to leave their home countries
• Poverty, famine/drought, discrimination, conflict, Ecological disasters
• Pull Factors: attract people to host countries
• Economic opportunities, access to land or food, educational opportunities, safety, tolerance

Golden visas/passports

• US work visa, 3-6 year term
• For "specialty occupations"highly educated, highly paid
• Visas or passports in exchange for direct "donations", real estate investment, other capital investment
• Allows immigrant investors to become US permanent residents (minimum investment: $1,000,000 in"new commercial enterprise")

Border Securitization

• Travel documents
• legal rules on migrant status

Causes?

• Inter-state conflicts?
• Terrorism?
• Drug trade?
• Right wing nationalism?
• Migration levels?
• Refugee crisis?
• Economic inequality?
• Uneven development?

NAFTA

• Increased cross-border flows between America, Canada and Mexico

Actions due to Trump on globalisation

• Withdrawal from international institutions
• Undermining public health institutions

In relation to Climate Change

• Climate reparations: use international resources to address inequalities caused/exacerbated by climate crisis
• Climate change mitigation
• Climate migration policy
• Green Climate Fund
• Climate colonialism: survived for wealthiestdevestation for vulnerable people

State of exception

• process whereby sovereign authorities declare emergencies inorder to suspend the legal protections afforded to individuals while simultaneously unleashing the power of the state upon them.