Global institutions
Globalising developing nations: political economy and technological challenges
One world or many? Strengthening the links between globalisation and development
Authors:
S. Roy
Publisher:
Eldis Document Store, 2009
Globalisation is a sign of our times: spearheaded by the ICT revolution, the world is increasingly connected through time and space. New markets are being constantly harnessed for growth, with positive effects on poverty reduction. But from the perspective of developing countries, globalisation also poses new challenges, including instability. How can globalisation better contribute to sustainable world development? A new report brought out by the School of International Relations and Strategic Studies at Jadavpur University investigates.
According to the report, the globalisation challenges facing developing countries are primarily to do with political economy. On the one hand, individual nation states are becoming less powerful. On the other, there has been a shift in power from state to non-state global institutions, including NGOs and protest movements. As a result, weakened states are having to deal with domestic tensions arising from ethnic, religious and cultural differences that have been exacerbated by globalisation. At the same time, inter-state conflicts, based primarily on socio-economic and territorial issues, persist in the post-cold war world order.
Under these circumstances, existing international institutions including the United Nations, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organisation now need to be modified so that they are better equipped to address the challenges of globalisation. In particular, ongoing dilemmas concerning conflict and peace, democracy, human rights, sustainable growth and development, the environment, migration and crime increasingly require collaboration between international institutions as well as coordination with non-state actors. In dealing with these challenges, a modified UN is likely to be most relevant.
The report concludes that globalisation has its costs as well as its benefits. Its goals and strategies now need to be reconsidered to move closer to a borderless world, while minimising the marginalisation of individual nations and people along the way. The report urges the countries of Asia and Africa in particular to better harness prevalent political economy and technological realities to derive more positive outcomes from globalisation. It also calls for a new conception of International Relations that is in tune with globalisation, by taking into account inter- as well as intra-state relations.
