Documentary Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy - Movie Review Example

Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Review of the Documentary “Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy” 2. Summary of main themes The documentary highlights issues affecting the world economy and the economic trends adopted by various countries around the world since the days of World War I (WWI). It has three central themes: the Battle of Ideas, the Agony of Reforms, and the New Rules of the Game. The Battle of Ideas is about the days prior to the WWI and WWII. According to the documentary, in 1914 there was a global economy that was energized by technological change and unprecedented flow of people and money, but all these were destroyed when WWI erupted. As a result of the war, the world economy is destroyed, and the resources of the great powers are exhausted. Later many minds are convinced that the economic systems itself is to blame and hence the battle of ideas to restore the economy begins. Two individuals surface whose ideas that have been shaped by very unique experiences will inform the debate on which way for the economies to go. One is an Englishman John Maynard Keynes and the other is an Austrian, Friedrich von Hayek. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, a worldwide depression grips capitalist countries and ideas from Marx, Lenin and Stalin arise to obliterate the capitalist system. In the ensuing days, socialism and communism seem to be the way to go, with socialism perceived to be a promise to a more just society. By the 1970s, Keynes’ ideas seem to have been embraced by many societies but this leads to economic stagnation. Later, in Britain, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher advocates for Hayek’s ideas as does President Ronald Reagan in the United States. Issues such as little government involvement in the economy and deregulation of airlines also take centre stage. The Agony of Reforms revolves around the Cold War and the clash between communism and capitalism. In many markets where government planning is involved, there seems to be economic stagnation. The free market policies of Thatcher and Reagan based on Hayek’s ideas appear to be the way out of crisis. Later, capitalism seems to thrive as privatization of commanding heights (major industries) takes its toll. The New Rules of the Game is about the global free market. Here regions such as India, China, Latin America, South East Asia and Eastern Europe all compete to attract investment from the developed world, resulting in a drop in tariff barriers. Globalization becomes pronounced but this leads to unforeseen events. For instance, a Mexican economic downturn threatens Clinton the administration in the US. The advent of internet-like markets, floating currencies and unrestricted capital flows increases levels of speculative investment and stagnates trade in actual services and goods. A single global market appears to become a reality and questions arise over who will write rules for this market. As prosperity continues to spread with the growth of trade, the rift between poor countries and rich counties increases. This rift needs to be checked, and there are other growing challenges such as global terrorism. 3. (a) How globalization has been transforming the old “First World-Second World-Third World” world order into a new “Core-Semi-Periphery-Periphery” world order After WWII, and as the Cold War ensued, the world was divided into first world countries, second world countries and third world countries or the “First World, Second World and Third World” world order. The First World comprised those countries that were aligned with the United States, and were democratic and embraced capitalism. These countries were generally the advanced economies as opposed to the Second World or communist states which were within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. However, the second world disintegrated after the revolutions that occurred in late 1980s and early 1990s. The third world on the other hand referred to countries that were not aligned with either capitalism or communism. With globalization, there has appeared to be a single global market with fewer tariff barriers. However, First world countries such as the United States have dominated this global market, and control and benefit from it more than the rest of the countries. This implies that they are the core while those that are still industrializing such as China and India try to catch up. These are said to be at the semi-periphery level. For instance, India adopted a mix of socialism and British principles for the growth of its industries. As well, there are those nations at the periphery which were in the past regarded as Third World. These countries, mostly located in Africa and Asia, are the least developed and benefit least from the global market. (b) The emergence of the global east The encouragement of free markets led to the increase in the capacity of countries of the east such as India, China, Japan, East Asia and Eastern Europe to participate in global trade. After major economic reforms in Bolivia and other countries of South America, countries in Eastern Europe such as Poland, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia clamored for the creation of free market economies. This was further fueled by the collapse of the Berlin wall in 1989. The demise of the Soviet Union created an opportunity for movement of goods, labor and capital across national borders while increasing international and economic competition of the countries involved. For India, the idea of central planning ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, implying that the government had little grasp of the economy and Indian prime minister gave the green light for a free market economy. Such interventions led to cuts in tariff barriers and removal of government subsidies to increase competition. Russia too privatized its commanding heights of the economy by converting state property into privately owned firms to increase competition as well as production. State companies were also sold off in a view to create a market economy where the market had more control of itself. With such strategies, a number of countries such as India, China and Russia emerged to compete in the global economy with the rest of the advanced economies. (c) The first major pitfalls of globalization After the battle of ideas, and the agony of reforms come the problems associated with globalization. The first major pitfall of globalization is the lack of an ideology to regulate the remarkably single market economy that was created in the 1990s. While everyone has a space on this market, no one seems to have control of this market. A notable question is whether the interconnected world can deliver prosperity to everyone. The answer is no. There are incredible inequalities of the poor and the rich countries. The advanced countries seem to benefit more from globalization. Larger regions of integration such as the EU and NAFTA exacerbate this inequality. The same applies to large countries such as China, the United States and India which seem to have a bigger bargaining power in the global market. The result is that some states are narrowly focused on their own interests such as creation of wealth and jobs while others lose out. In addition, some countries worry about the international environment and how it is interacting with the incredible pace of global change. With globalization came major threats such as international terrorism which major powers such as the United States have had to contend with since the late 1990s. The problem here is that countries that align with such powers also become targets of terrorism and thus terrorism has become a global threat in recent years. According to the documentary, terrorism is the dark side of globalization. 4. Conclusion In summary, the documentary highlights the fact that globalization has enhanced market opportunities since countries at different levels of development can now interact through trade in the free market environment .Trade levels have increased and this means more opportunities for employment around the world. However, globalization has also increased the need for integration and this has seen the rise of bodies such as NAFTA and EU which has increased the influence of advanced economies on the global market. Thus, there is a rift as some countries remain filthy rich while others are extremely poor. With globalization has also come terrorism which remains a major global challenge. Work cited: Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy. 23 February 2012. Read More