Social Media: Communication and Empowerment

The United Nations

• The purpose of the UN is to maintain worldwide peace and security, develop relations among nations, foster cooperation to solve international problems, and provide a forum for countries to come together.
• The main organs of the UN are the General Assembly and the Security Council.
• The General Assembly is the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN, comprising all 193 Member States.
• Decisions on important questions require a two-thirds majority, while decisions on other questions are by simple majority.
• The General Assembly elects a President to serve a one-year term.

The Security Council

• The Security Council is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security.
• The Council has 15 members, including 5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members.
• It takes the lead in determining the existence of a threat to the peace or act of aggression.
• The Security Council has a Presidency, which rotates every month.

The Role of the Nation-State in Globalization

• Nation-states are not abolished by expanded trade, but rather, globalization changes the way they interact with each other, particularly in international trade.
• Nation-states have potential effects on globalization, such as favoring Westernization, which disadvantages other nations, especially in the agricultural industry.
• Nation-states are forced to examine their economic policies in light of the challenges and opportunities presented by multinational corporations and international commerce.

The Role of the Nation-State in a Global World

• The role of the nation-state is largely regulatory, and its domestic role remains unchanged.
• In setting international trade policies, isolated states are forced to engage with one another, while the role of some states is diminished, and others are exalted due to economic imbalances.

Social Media and the States

• Social media empower individuals to have a voice and allows for easy electronic communication of personal information and content.
• Social media have changed the way knowledge is recorded and passed on within social movements.
• States are making pragmatic transformations by adapting to fit in among decisive global networks in finance, education, science, technology, arts, culture, and sports.

Global Governance

• Global governance is a movement towards political integration of transnational actors aimed at negotiating responses to problems that affect more than one state or region.
• It involves institutionalization, and these institutions have limited or demarcated power to enforce compliance.
• Global governance is concerned with issues that have become too complex for a single state to address alone, such as humanitarian crises, military conflicts, climate change, and economic volatility.

Types of International Organizations

• Universal membership organizations include the United Nations, Bretton Woods Institutions, and the World Trade Organization.
• New Internationalism in the Global South refers to the resistant imagery of a transnational political subject that results from a shared experience of subordination under contemporary global capitalism.

Explore the role of social media as an internet-based platform for electronic communication, sharing personal information, and empowering individuals to have a voice. Learn how social movements leverage social media for crowdsourcing and stakeholder collaboration.