Does Globalization increase the prospects for peace in world politics?

Essay by dadushuUniversity, Bachelor'sB+, November 2008

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

[Type text]

Does Globalization increase the prospects for peace in world politics?

By globalization we simply mean the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies such that events in one part of the world more and more have effects on peoples and societies far away (Baylis &Smith, 2005:8). It involves the process of increased integration between different countries and economies and the increased impact of international influences on all aspects of life and economic activity. Does globalization increase the prospects for peace in world politics? In modern times, there are two different perspectives on globalization-----realism and liberalism. For realism, it considers that globalization is nothing new, not good or bad; for liberalism, it thinks that globalization has significant influence on the peace of world politics. It is a complex debate and will be discussed by looking at the issues in terms of these two different points of view.

Realism is the dominant theory of international relations (Baylis &Smith, 2005:161).

Globalization does not modify the most important aspect of the world politics, explicitly the territorial distribution of the world into nation-states. Whereas the increased interconnectedness between economies and societies may make them more dependent with each other, but the same thing cannot be used to describe the state systems. At this point, states maintain sovereignty, and globalization does not solve political conflicts between nations, taking American imperialism as an example. Globalization does not provide safety for American government on the oil supply, such as the Gulf war (1991) and Iraq war (2003). Therefore it does not weaken the consequence of the threat of the use of military or the strength, or the significance of the balance of power as well. After the attack on 11 September 2001, Naim says that 'the era of globalization is over' (2002:25). Thus globalization may influence...