The Two Biggest Problems in the World Today, Religious Conflicts and Globalization - Essay Example

The two biggest problems in the world today; Religious Conflicts and Globalization The world today experiences myriad of challenges in the quest for societal development. The idea of natural coexistence is long forgotten, and a lot of things threaten survival of people in the world today. Experts and specialists struggle to trace the roots of primary problems in vain. Most of these problems date back to historical times while others are recent developments in the global world. Most countries’ economies are in crisis, and it requires intervention to establish appropriate ways of getting economies back on track. These changes mostly influence individual lives and relation with each other. The two primary problems in the world today are religious conflicts and globalization. The survival of the world remains at stake if Christians and Muslims cannot make peace (Sisk 21). Difference in religious values surely threatens survival of people in the world today. Moreover, where religious values clash with political ideologies, bloodshed can arise. This makes religious conflict a global problem today. Globalization, on the other hand, involves interconnection of countries’ political, religious, economic and social policies in a global setting. It requires that no country operates on its own, and ensures sharing of ideologies in an international framework. This is detrimental to political and individual’s survival since it erodes political and social cultures plus providing no security on territories. This paper analyzes these two problems; globalization and religious conflicts, explaining why they are global problems. Moreover, the paper describes historical roots of these problems, and how they impact the world people live in today. The discussion appears below. To begin with, religious conflict is a significant problem in the world today. The survival of the world seems to be at stake if Christians and Muslims do not make peace with each other. In recent times, weaponry in the modern world takes a different turn with most countries equipping their military base to counter any external attacks. The problem arises in the way Muslims and Christians intertwine in the world today (Broadshead and Keown 54). There is no place with purely a single religion of people, and this makes war situations between the two religions costly. In a recent letter by Islamic scholars to the Pope, they state that the world cannot be at peace if Muslims and Christian are not at peace. For this reason, these scholars state similarities in the two religions by quoting the Bible and Quran, identifying instances which require love of one’s neighbor and the need to worship one God in both cases. This transcends the need for conflict between these two religions, describing peace as a primary requirement for coexistence. The historical roots of this problem dates back to many years back. The idea of conflicting religious values happens to be a significant problem in the world today. Biblical history identifies differences in these issues from a long time. The Islam and Christians religious differences have their roots in early times. The conflict between Judaism and Islam involves religious groups and dates back to more than 3000 years. This conflict exists in the Christian and Jewish Old testament and other records. History says that the conflict between these two groups has its roots from the religious differences between Judaism and Islam. The Arab-Israel war also dates back to such times. The idea behind this war is differences in ideologies between Israel and Arab countries on religious issues. The weaponry nature of these countries facilitates the war, and leads to loss of much lives. Though appearing to be a political war, this war has its causes on differences in religious values between the two countries. However, the idea of worship is synonymous in both cases, which makes the situation complex (Chirico 61). Arab countries advocate for justice, and believe that death sentences for atonement of sins are a subtle way of redemption. However, Israel believes taking an individual’s life is a heinous act which needs revoking. Moreover, the ability of these countries to manufacture war weapons makes the situation tougher for both of them. Both Arab and Israel believe that one would become stronger to later suppress religious values of the other. The result has been raging war of religious nature. Another problem in the modern society is globalization. Globalization comes with interchanging of all cultures between countries making privacy a menace (Westerfield & Abbink 25). The idea of globalization has no definite definition. Different scholars define it in their own way depending on their beliefs regarding international relation. The three common ideas defining globalization are; hyper globalists, the skeptics and the transformation beliefs. Hyper globalists believe the world changes rapidly and leaders have to bear with such situations the hard way. They believe countries are changing to become decision takers rather than decision makers. This is a global concern in the world today since states take ideas which may not be suitable for their development ideologies (Brysk 56). Moreover, having the international environment set standards for a country may deprive it the opportunity of realizing and achieving potentials. However, skeptics believe that having the international domain rule states is increasing states powers in a number of ways. This is contradictory to the first thought but has quality evidence in its support (Westerfield and Abbink 24). The idea is that there is no supervision in international domain, and countries do what they wish with available resources. This is also a problem to societal development in the long run because individuals in power misuse offices, and has no one to take necessary action. The last notion of transformation believes that globalization brings changes in political, economic and social aspects of the society which, however drastic, enhances states powers and level of performance. The history of globalization traces many years back from1500-1800 (Westerfield and Abbink 34). This is the pre-modern period when most countries had to embrace the idea of shared connectivity. In this time, different forms of globalization exist, and are evident in the impact they have on various aspects of people’s lives, ranging from cultural factors to military operations. Politics during this period centered on achieving international recognition, and the more a country’s political ideologies were successful, the more people regarded its philosophies (Chirico 110). This is a significant turn towards globalization, and has seen tremendous development towards establishment of a standard political system for all countries. In effect, countries formed regional unions which ensure political operations within required range, and no malpractices. In this regard, globalization ensures intensification, widening and speeding up of world’s interconnectedness (Brysk 24). This arises due to pressure from international community to perform based on set standards. The concept of globalization then turns its focus later on affecting changes to countries’ cultures. Some practices are done away with while new ones set in. in the process, most countries struggle to embrace the changing cultural practices leading to wider globalization. This develops for many years up to date to become one of the world’s leading global problems. The effects of globalization to the world are numerous. Globalization leads to frequent migration with people always on the move. The desire to have greener pastures plus living better lives propels people to migrate. Migration in effect interferes with a country’s ideologies in many ways. Immigrants come with different views and ideas which impacts on a country’s political system. Moreover, culture can change if more people migrate and occupy a domain within the country. Another aspect of globalization is the effect it has on territorial boundaries. With acceptable international political philosophies, countries are left no choice but to operate within the domains of international demands. This is a problem in two ways; leaders can exercise authority carelessly because there is no direct way of vindicating them (Chirico 64). The international scene has no visible authority to question leaders which may lead to misuse of power. The other reason is that a country may not exploit its potentials fully because it has to operate within the realms of international settings. Other than that, globalization also affects a nation’s culture. Most notable is the current formation of global regions which share common culture. The international world appears appealing to most people hence the desire to conform to its demands. This ends up corroding country’s native culture, leaving it with no identity. Lastly, globalization leads to organized international violence. An example is during the cold war era, and since the end of cold war there has been increasing attempts of regionalization and institutionalization of security and military affairs to an extent that most countries are now entangled in multilateral arrangements for military and security matters, doing away with neutrality as a defense mechanism (Chirico112). In conclusion, the world today experiences various problems which affect people’s survival in a number of ways. Discussed above are two primary problems of religious conflicts and globalization. In religious conflicts, it is notable that survival of people in the world today entirely depends on making of peace between Muslims and the Christian communities. Globalization, on the other hand, erodes a nations culture, interferes with territorial boundaries plus leading to increased globalization of organized violence. Works cited Broadshead, Phillip., and Keown, Damein. ed. Can Faiths Make Peace?: Holy Wars and the Resolution of Religious Conflicts. California: I.B.Tauris, 2007. Print Brysk, Alison. Globalization and Human Rights. California: University of California Press, 2002. Print Chirico, JoAnn. Globalization: Prospects and Problems. New York: SAGE Publications, 2013. Sisk, Timothy. Between Terror and Tolerance: Religious Leaders, Conflict, and Peacemaking. New York: Georgetown University Press, 2011. Westerfield, Robert., & Abbink, Jared. ed. Current Issues in Globalization. New York: Nova Publishers, 2004. Read More