Whether the Quest of Having a Better World Has Been Realized since 1945 - Essay Example

Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date: In 1945 The United Nations Was Established Amid Hope For A Better World. Surveying the World since 1945, To What Extent Has Such Hope Been Realized? Introduction The essay is argumentative and seeks to establish whether the quest of having a better world has been realized since 1945. There are four main aspects that surround human beings; these are categorized broadly as political, social, economic and environmental factors. With the realization of how these aspects or rather factors directly impact on mankind, for instance, bad economy will results to unemployed people, slowed economic growth, lack of money, on the other hand, bad politics similarly do have serious implications on the well being of citizen within a given country. Due to these factors, efforts have been made over time to help change the scenario so that human race will have to exist in an environment that they deem better in fostering their way of life (Collins, 2007 254). The big question that we ask our selves at present is to what extent has the hopes of having a better world been achieved. Historically, before and even after 1945, the world has been characterized by very serious conflicts that did happen between and among nations, ethnic communities within a country, bad economic times characterized by great depression, economic recession as well as financial crisis. Additionally, environmental challenges have never departed from mankind (Matray, 2000 12). At present, it is established that the greatest challenge facing mankind is nothing but global climate change. It is worth mentioning that the efforts put forward by various countries from Europe, Asia, America, Africa, Middle East has help a great deal in averting the characteristic of war torn nations, high level of poverty, high level of unemployment, high dependence on agriculture among other negative things (Wang, 2002 30). Economic It is worth noting that economic prosperity of any country and in that matter that of the entire world depends on trade. Trade between and among various distance partners can be drawn to have started back in the times of civilization (Kuisel, 1991 100). World economy refers to movement of goods, services, people and capital between and among countries. Close analysis of about two hundred years down the line of international trade which dictates economic well being of a country and its citizen clearly depicts a lot of improvement (Wang, 2002 17). There is increased market integration which has been followed by a rapid development and expansion in international trade, mass labor migration as well as huge capita flow. It is important to remember that all these are as a result of largely to technological innovation in transport, as well as other communication channels, that did result to business dealings being made with a shorter time despite the fact that the parties involved are thousands of miles away from each other. The results of these dealings can be clearly seen as they have impacted on how the current human generation. For instance, although there were incidences of global financial crisis, the rates of unemployment went down, economic prosperity of various countries grew, poverty decline among other things. From 1945 to 1970, most of the western countries experienced post-world war II economic expansion; this was a period of economic prosperity. What followed was the collapse of Bretton Wood system, oil crisis of 1973, and stock market crash, all these resulted to economic recession in 1970s (Kuisel, 1991 97). Although economic turmoil seemed to have started in 1970s, other countries especially East Asia and Western Europe did experience a high and sustainable economic growth, full employment. The effects of postwar economic boom were also felt in countries such as West Germany, Japan, and France which was seriously affected by the war (Reynolds, 2000 649). Oil producing countries during that time also experienced a gross domestic product of between 4-5% contrary to 2% and 3% in 1980s and 1970s respectively. Between 1945 and 1971, and 1973 to 1997, the number of financial crisis reported were thirty eight and twenty four respectively. Noting that the efforts aimed at reducing the negative impact of economic recession were purposely to better human life, the reduced number of financial crisis between 1973 and 1997 has made economic stability to be realized (Matray, 2000 22). The efforts immediately after the 1945 World War II that fostered economic growth include immediate post war policy as well as institutional responses. The great depression taught the world a hard lesson and no one was ready to be taken back to that scenario. In more recent times, the IMF has developed policies that will help safeguard world economies from global financial crisis. In my opinion, despite the fact that there are instances where we have experienced global turmoil in world’s economy for instance the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis, the effects were not as serious as those felt back during the time of Great Depression. Political Politics is part and parcel of human race and it the one very factor that determines relationship between and among sovereign nations. It has been noted further that good relation always foster international trade hence global economic expansion and growth. Governments always set laws, policies and regulations that might stimulate or hinder trade between nations (Evans, 1997 10) In the wake of 1945, the world was characterized by a myriad of problems. There was bad blood between U.S.A and USSRA, colonialism collapsed, Red China rose, and war emerged in Korea, Middle East and Vietnam. Although it seemed that thing were changing for the better, within no time the world found it self in the middle of another monster, terrorism. Tension between the east and the west mounted forcing actions to be taken to avert the situation (Reynolds, 2000 650). . Factoring in the issue of terrorism when it comes to political analysis of the current world, am made to conclude that the world is not only unfair but also unfriendly place for mankind to exist without fear. As mentioned previously, historically the world has been marked by tribal hostility, war and conflict between nations (Wang, 2002 20). Presently, although men and women from all spheres of life have struggled to change the whole picture, technological advancement especially in military issues has indeed made everything worse that it was in the past. According to Engerman, 2010 30 various countries are engaging themselves in developing weapons that when used, then the whole of mankind will be in the verge of extinction. For instance, nuclear bombs, sophisticated biological weapons and equipment has made it very easy to eliminate a given population, this has made people to live in constant fear. The negative impacts of the Second World War made even military leaders to suggest that actions need to be taken to combat such incidences from happening in the near future. Despite this call, it is worth mentioning that immediately after the war, issue started emerging; U.S.A and Britain in one side locked horns with the USSR in struggling for power. This turned out to be a political cold war in which the west and the east that involved military actions (Isserman & Kazin, 2004 129). The emerging result was lack of mutual trust, high degree of suspicion as well as animosity between the involved countries. Over the years from 1945 to about 1990, the cold war was a determining factor in international relations. U.S.A and Soviet Union actively looked for backing resulting to division of major countries to either of the camp (Gaddis, 1993 49). Each group claimed and championed for what it stood for, capitalism and communism. Additionally, both justified the use and construction of weapon of mass destruction. It is worth noting that global politics is what resulted to the gap between the rich and the poor; hence industrially developed nation, the north and the third world countries, the south. The later has been characterized by low economic growth, high rates of unemployment, low level of education, poverty, and low rate of life expectancy, high rates of mortality, and higher rates of population growth among other things (Gaddis, 1993 6). For these reasons, citizens from these countries are impoverished, always at risk of being attacked by deadly diseases, malnourished and not able to live a life of dignity and prosperity. In the quest of trying to ‘help’ third world countries lift themselves from the hard economic live and misery, the developed countries crafted policies that indeed made these countries live in misery. War in these countries have been instigated and in most cases funded and encouraged by the western countries. Thus the desire to better the world in terms of politics has gain minimal positive strides (Reynolds, 2000 645). However, this is not to say that no positive efforts were made to avert the situation. Notably, Richard Nixon the American president initiated a warm relationship with the east in order to ease the tension, mistrust and hostility between his country and Middle East countries (Gaddis, 1993 32). Nixon generally improved the live of most Americans by his domestic policies which favored, provision of health care, sustainable use of the environment by setting up legislations, equal employment opportunities, improved mutual understanding with the Eastern countries among others. On the same note, the current president of America Obama is also trying his best to foster the relationship between America and countries from the east (Engerman, 2010 29). What though seems disturbing is the constant threats and of course some incidences of terrorism. Additionally, there are incidences of ‘near misses’ between countries, ethnic conflicts and hostility, for these reasons no one knows when the hell will break loose, leading to a war like never before (Isserman & Kazin, 2004 110) Over the years, politics have played a major role in ensuring that international trade is encouraged. Various legislations in a number of countries have been implemented to ensure trade flourish. This has seen to it that those countries that have carefully participated in the trade have experienced positive economic growth (Collins, 2007 237). Conclusion From the review of the world history from 1945 to date, there seem to be positive strides that have been made in trying to make the world a better place. Nonetheless, these efforts and steps like any other things do have drawback and the consequences of those efforts have resulted to a number of negative aspects that seem to cancel the said advantages. For this reason, I think the world seems better when looked with eyes behind glasses but when looked with an open and a critical eyes, mankind is in the verge of facing serious issues ranging from political, economic as well as environment factors. References Collins, Robert. Transforming America: Politics and Culture in the Reagan Years. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007. Engerman, David."Ideology and the Origins of the Cold War" in Melvyn P.Leffler and Odd Arne Westad (Eds), the Cambridge History of the Cold War: Volume One Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Evans, Eric. Thatcher and Thatcherism. London: Rutledge, 1997. Gaddis, John Lewis. The Cold War: A New History. New York: Penguin, 1993. Isserman, Maurice & Kazin, Michael. American Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Judt, Tony. "A Story Still to Be Told", in New York Review of Books (23 March 2006): 11-15 Kuisel, Richard F. "Coca-Cola and the Cold War: The French Face of Americanization. French Historical Studies 17 (2) (1991): 96-116 Matray, James. Japan's Emergence as a Global Power. Wesport, Ct: Greenwood Press, 2000. Reynolds, David. One World Divisible: A Global History since 1945. New York: Norton and Company, 2000. Wang, James. Contemporary Chinese Politics. An Introduction. Upper saddle river, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002. Read More