Globalization Impact on Iran - Essay Example

Globalization Impact on Iran Introduction Modern world can be hardly imagined without globalization process. The increasing role of transnational companies, blurring the boundaries between different countries, increasing a number of immigrants have become the essential features of the realities of the modern world. It is a well-known fact that globalization process has both positive as well as negative effects. It helps to establish the connection and build solid relationships between different countries and nationalities, but it also contributes to the development of immigration, blurring the traditions and culture of the countries. This paper examines the impact of globalization on Iran, its main features, threats, and possible opportunities for further development. Main Body The main aspects of globalization impact on Iran According to Ghaffari (2005), globalization has become one of “the most debated issues throughout the world, which, no doubt also influence Iran” (Ghaffari & Sharamnia, 2005). The main reason why Iran has recently started to experience the impact of globalization is emergence of modern social networks as well as its rapid economic growth. Despite the fact that globalization has both positive and negative effects, “the globalization trends in 1990s have affected most of the countries and Iran too has experienced the changing mood of the people” (Ghaffari & Sharamnia, 2005). In spite of different opinions of researchers about the impacts of the globalization process, the effect of this trend on the people’s life is beyond the measure. It worth mentioning that globalization process is a complex of different tenets, which includes such aspects as technological, economic, political, cultural, as well as social. It is hard to properly estimate, which one of those aspects is the most significant and has the biggest impact. The essence of the technological aspect of globalization consist of communication and transporting industries, development of such sciences as microelectronics and IT, etc. The vivid example of the influence of technological aspect of globalization on Iran is increasing popularity and usage of social media. They have facilitated the communication process inside as well as outside the country and contributed to the implementation of main tenets of democracy. The Economic aspect of the globalization process and its impact on Iran includes “global economic convergences, the rapid growth of the business, the spread of communications and transportation, mutual needs of the countries in various fields, and international cooperation with the increasing role of international organizations” (Ghaffari & Sharamnia, 2005). Globalization has significantly influenced Iran’s economic. There are few main features of changes that occurred due to the increasing role of the globalization process (Pavitt, 2002). The first one is increasing of foreign investments, the entrance of Iran into international financial markets, as well as increasing the stock exchange. The second characteristic feature is “establishment of liberal market economy” with the possibility for free competition (Ghaffari & Sharamnia, 2005). The emergence of free rivalry in the national economy of Iran contributes to improving the quality of products and increasing their diversity. This is, undoubtedly, the positive impact that can help to become Iran’s economy go to the next level. The third feature of an economic aspect of globalization impact on Iran is an expansion of international as well as multinational corporations and their supremacy over the regional economy. Despite all the positive impacts of globalization on the development of the economy of Iran, it also has some negative effects. For instance, it causes the increase of migration of labor that as a result also leads to negative social as well as cultural effects. Another aspect of globalization process on Iran is a political influence. Despite the widespread beliefs that globalization causes the disappearance of nationalities “it continues to play the vital role in changing state’s delivering powers to institutions and super-national organizations” (Ghaffari & Sharamnia, 2005). In addition, it causes the emergence of neo political actors on national as well international arenas. These actors are ethnic, regional groups, authority and non-government organizations as well. The other significant feature of the political aspect of the globalization process and its influence on Iran in overall is increasing role of inherent human rights and their protection. In this way, the increasing role of the human right leads to the formation of a new political culture that is based on such values as well as freedoms as equality, peace, freedom of speech, and, of course, inherent human right for life. The foreign policy of the state is based on the Constitution, which supports the basic goals and ideals of this country. Taking into account the importance of the principles of respect for human rights, taking into account Islamic values, the Constitution enshrines the basic norms and principles of human rights, and identifies human rights as one of the defining principles of the foreign policy of the country. The Islamic Republic of Iran in its relations with the outside world proclaims the ideas of social justice, the fight against all manifestations of oppression and tyranny, respect for freedom and dignity, and the protection of the interests of the oppressed peoples around the world. These values ​​underlie the foreign policy of Iran. Each of these ideas in practice means the protection of human rights at the international level, but the basis of the idea of ​​human rights is to protect the rights and interests of all Muslims, the development of relations with democratic regimes, support the struggle of the oppressed nations. If to talk about the cultural aspect of globalization impact, it is worth mentioning that it leads to the formation of global culture, which is becoming immensely widespread and popular due to the blurring of national boundaries. The last but not least is the social aspect. It contributes to “formation of social, neoclassic movements with globalization of values like movements for women, peace, ecology, labor and youth etc” (Ghaffari & Sharamnia, 2005). Trade and Immigration As it was mentioned above in the paragraph about the economic aspect of globalization impact on Iran, it has both positive as well as negative effects. First of all, globalization leads to the development of national economy inasmuch as it helps to attract foreign capital from more developed countries such as the United States of America and the countries of European Union. In addition, globalization causes the increase of the impact of international companies on the economy of the particular country. Such companies create new working jobs and working positions. In this way, those citizens that had no opportunity to work obtain the chance to use and implement their professional skills (Kahkha & Siyahsar, 2014). The movement towards globalization of the economy began in Iran on the advice of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund has begun in 1990, after the years of war with Iraq, which was accompanied by privatization and the liberalization of many sectors of the economy, especially trade. Unfortunately, many of the activities on the liberalization of economic life were then carried out hastily, without prior examination of the situation and the state of the economy, in the course of which were made some mistakes and miscalculations. Globalization reveals new possibilities for dynamically developing economy of Iran and has a great potential to increase its industrial production. Tariff reduction contributes to overcoming obstacles to the development of imports into the country. On the other hand, the policy of reducing tariff unification will lead to the higher competitiveness of imported products in the domestic market, which is fraught with the national economy. The essence of the negative aspect of globalization is the increasing number of immigrants. Such factor as blurring the national boundaries leads to alleviation of the immigration process. Those citizens who have no any education and can not find the job in the native country decide to look for it in the more developed ones. Impact of globalization on poverty and different stakeholders in Iran According to Pahani (2011) “there is positive relationship between trade liberalization and poverty” (Fotourehchi, Panahi & Nazari, 2011). This questions still remains contradictory due to the fact that different researchers use different methods as well as approaches. The essence of the positive impact of globalization on poverty in Iran is connected with the fact that when low-income countries such as Iran in its initial stages of economic development, break into the global market, poor people obtained a possibility to move in order to find a better job. In addition to this, as a result of globalization emerge integration that raise productivity job by job. This is mainly caused by the fact that employee with the same skills and abilities are “less productive and earn less in developing economies than in advanced ones” (Fotourehchi, Panahi & Nazari, 2011). In this way, integration reduces these gaps. Also, globalization process significantly influences different stakeholders such as domestic companies, farmers, workers. The role and popularity of small domestic organizations has reduced with the intervention of international corporations. It becomes immensely hard for them for them to compete with market giants due to the fact that they have no such funding and investments. In this way, globalization has a negative impact on the domestic households and can totally destroy them. Conclusion To sum it up, globalization is the process that no one can avoid. It becomes immensely popular because it has a lot of positive aspects that can help developing countries to develop and enter the international market. Despite this fact, globalization can also be a threat for small private households and can lead to increasing the number of immigrants. In this way, the countries have to design the plan of implementing globalization in order to maximize its benefits and minimize its negative aspects. References Fotourehchi, Z., Panahi, D., & Nazari, M. (2011). The Effect of Globalization on Poverty in Iran: Urban And Rural Area Separately. Australian Journal Of Basic And Applied Sciences, 5(12), 1334-1338. Ghaffari, M., & Sharamnia, A. (2005). Globalization and the Democratic Turn in Iran. J. Humanities, 12(1), 83-95. Kahkha, A., & Siyahsar, Z. (2014). Globalization and Its Influence on National Security of Iran. Interdisciplinary Journal Of Contemporary Research In Business, 6(3), 44-50. Mohammadi, A. (2013). Iran Encountering Globalization. Problems and prospects. London: RoutledgeCurzon. Pavitt, K. (2002). The Globalizing Learning Economy. The Academy Of Management Review, 27(1), 125. Read More