International Security and the State - Essay Example

Running header: International Security and the State Student’s name: Name of institution: Instructor’s name: Course code: Date of submission: International Security and the State Introduction Globalization has been defined as the process of integration and interaction among governments, people, nations or companies.1 The process is usually driven by investment and international trade and aided by information technology. The process of globalization has both positive and negative effects on a number of issues such as culture, human physical wellbeing, prosperity and economic development, political systems and the environment among others.2 Globalization and international security cannot be separated. There is a growing number of literature that shows how security has become a complex and multidimensional.3 With the wake and rise of international terrorism, there have been a number of factors blamed for the increase in these rates. This paper will critically assess the proposition that globalization has contributed to growing insecurity in the international system by examining the relationship between globalization and security. Globalization has been described as the continued unification of the economic order of the world. It has been said to occur because of the reduction of barriers such as import quotas, export fees and international trade tariffs. Globalization is aimed at increasing the interdependence and connectivity of the world’s businesses and markets.4 The primary goal of globalization is also to increase services, goods and material wealth by internationally dividing labor through efficiencies that are catalyzed by competition, specialization and international relations.5 Through globalization, regional economies, cultures and societies are increasingly becoming integrated through trade, transportation and communication.6 Globalization is not a new concept. This is evident in the fact that people and corporations have been buying and selling goods and services to each other over great distances of land.7 People and corporations have also invested in business enterprises in other countries. The features of globalization have been seen for a very long time ago. This can be said to be even before the First World War broke out in 1914.8 The increase in cross border trade, migration and investments can be said to have been spurred by technological advancements and policy that have been taking place over the years.9 These technological advancements make it a lot easier for people to engage in business, to communicate and to travel internationally.10 The technological advancements can be attributed to the rise of the internet and the advances in different telecommunication infrastructures.11 Generally, as globalization becomes more and more common, economies are becoming more and more connected to each other. This means that the amount of opportunities is increased and the amount of competition is also increased.12 It is therefore correct to conclude that as globalization becomes increasingly common throughout the world, there are those who support it because of the advantages that it comes with and those who are totally against it because of the problems that are associated with it.13 International security being threatened by globalization is one such issue that has elicited mixed reaction and anti-globalization lobbies from different people across the world.14 Essentially, the process of globalization has been blamed for threatening the security of various states. The proposition that globalization has contributed to growing insecurity in the international system is brought about by a number of factors. Globalization has a lot of implications on both national and global security. Some of these implications are positive while some of them are negative. Technologies are growing, developing and spreading rapidly. Global trade is also expanding at a very fast rate. The flow of private investment and capital is also growing fast. These factors have led to the growth of interdependence in all aspects of human life.15 The developments brought about by globalization create the opportunity for many countries to promote peace, spread political freedom and realize numerous possibilities. These same developments are also responsible for the production of powerful forces of social fragmentation that have created fragmentation and increased vulnerabilities by sowing seeds of conflict and violence. Globalization can therefore be said to have numerous implications on security.16 International security has for a long time been viewed in terms of military threats that arise beyond the borders of one’s country. That is why national security has traditionally been understood as acquiring, using and deploying military force so as to achieve national security goals.17 Many contemporary scholars have however restricted the application of security only to threats in the military realm. International security can be faced with non-military security threats and military security threats.18 Non-military security threats may include overpopulation, spread of diseases, environmental scarcity, spread of refugee movements, environmental degradation and terrorism. Others may include threats on the survival of individuals, ethnic conflicts, civil wars and environmental threats. All the other forms of dangers mentioned here are also forms of insecurity on the international scene.19 The globalization of communication, transformation, technology, the economy and information catalyze some dangers to nations such as terrorism and other environmental dangers such as acid rain, ozone depletion and global warming among others. International relations and strategy change as a result of globalization.20 This is because globalization makes it difficult to distinguish between internal/domestic politics and external/international politics. Globalization can easily make domestic issues transform to foreign issues and foreign issues transform to international ones. This makes the various states to be vulnerable and lack the privacy that they ought to enjoy.21 Globalization is known to create an interpenetration of both domestic and foreign issues which make national governments continue to operate in a manner that is defined by how internal and external security intersect. Globalization also puts a lot of pressures on governments on bureaucratic unprecedented innovations in the search for security. Countries may feel the need to cooperate with transnational and sub-state partners instead of their traditional allies.22 Since globalization has been seen to entail the reduction of barriers such as import quotas, export fees and international trade tariffs, many countries are encouraged to interact with each other. No country is self sufficient.23 No country has everything that it needs. This therefore brings about the need for interaction and interdependence.24 As different countries demand for different commodities, they are able to obtain funds and resources from each other which allow fighting factions to be able to sustain their wars over many years because they can fund these wars. It has been said that globalization has been promoted as a result of advancements in technology. An example of technological advancement that can be cited here is the internet. The internet has been used to facilitate business deals and interactions among many different states of the world. The spread of human rights and norms of good governance have been spread via the internet for a long time now. However, the internet has been blamed to be a means through which intolerance for each other has been spread. Globalization has also brought about industrial and technological developments in many regions of the world. More and more nations now have access to the basic technologies that they need to make weapons and other means of mass destruction. The open global markets have made the control of traffic of weapons of mass destruction much more difficult because people are allowed to trade freely across borders. With technology, people can manufacture deadly weapons of mass destruction and have a means of getting them into other countries because of the free trade.25 The security threats brought about by globalization are as a result of advanced technologies being freely dispersed to various regions of the world.26 These technologies can be used maliciously to harm other people through the creation of weapons of mass destruction. Globalization brings about many changes to a country that destabilize its security and wellbeing. Globalization has been blamed for the evolution of terrorism.27 Globalization leads to a non-territorial nature of states where countries feel that they have the freedom to enter any other country of their choice and conduct their business. This has brought about a lot of acts of terrorism and it has been difficult to control terrorism because of the non-territorial nature that is brought about by globalization.28 It is difficult to evaluate the precise effects of globalization on international security. This has brought about a lot of uncertainty about whether the state of security is deteriorating or improving. The impact of globalization is known to vary from one region to the next.29 The capacities of different nations to deal with these impacts of globalization also vary from country to country. Each nation should employ unique strategies that will help it to deal with the challenges that arise as a result of globalization.30 Globalization is a threat to international security in the sense that a country experiences difficulty in controlling its non-physical security aspects.31 This may include the safeguarding of information technology assets. Many scholars have argued that the more a country protects it information technology resources, the stronger the country is.32 A giant military base is one example of a security force that needs to have its information technology resources protected and safeguarded. In most regions, the arms industry is led by the private sector. It is private firms that are charged with the responsibility of manufacturing and distributing these arms.33 This is known to cause the trans-nationalization of defense production. The control of the state over these products is greatly reduced. This means that these arms can easily get into the wrong hands and when they do so, they pose a major threat to the security of the region.34 Globalization can also lead to a lot of movement on people from one region to another. People can move from one region to another for a number of reasons such as trade and tourism. These movements of people may bring about a lot of issues such as people bringing their bad habits to other countries where these habits did not exist.35 These people can also bring their knowledge and expertise in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction that can be used to carry out acts of terrorism in these countries.36 The spread of knowledge can also be another reason that contributed to the widespread globalization. As knowledge spreads, so do the people who get acquitted to that knowledge and they may use it for a number of reasons, some of which may threaten the security of others. Globalization has led to industrial development that has seen the emergence production markets worldwide. People now have access to a wider range of foreign products for both companies and consumers. This is because the free movement of goods within and between national boundaries.37 The trade in internationally manufactured goods has gone up more than 100 times since 1955. All these factors show that the number of people moving into and out of a country is sometimes very high. These people can bring insecurity to the nations that they visit and their own countries as well.38 Globalization has made many nations to be richer by stabilizing their financial base through opening up trade with other countries. such countries also have better access to financing from lenders and can easily expand their levels of investment and trade.39 When countries are richer, they have the money to do a lot of things. They can invest in a lot of weapons of mass destruction that can be used to threaten the security of other regions, continents or countries.40 With globalization comes the realization of global common markets for goods and services. This global common market is usually based on the free exchange of capital and goods.41 In order to survive in these new global common market places, businesses need to improve their methods of production and increase their competition. This is mostly achieved through upgrades of products and procedures of production. Increasing technology and using it skillfully is another method of ensuring that the companies stay above the rest in the competition. Advancement in technology therefore means better means of production and quality products. This places a region ahead of the rest in terms of what they can produce and they can threaten the security of other regions.42 Globalization has a wide range of impacts on politics within any country. Political developments are greatly influenced by globalization, which decreases the importance of the state.43 There are a number of important supra-state and sub-state institutions that have been forms as a result of globalization. These include the International Criminal Court, the G8, NATO and the European Union among others.44 These institutions have led the state to lose its power of policy making and sovereignty. Many critics for example see the decline in the power of the United States.45 This has led to insecurity issues being experienced in some regions because of the lack of power and control of the state and its organs.46 The flow of information in and out of various countries has also been made so much easier as a result of globalization. Information now easily flows between geographically remote regions as a result of technological advancements through the invention of satellites, fibre optic, internet and telephone.47 This has increased the amount of information that falls in the wrong hands and has put many nations in a state of vulnerability and thus insecurity. Conclusion In conclusion, globalization has been defined as the process of integration and interaction among governments, people, nations or companies. The process is usually driven by investment and international trade and aided by information technology.48 The process of globalization has both positive and negative effects on a number of issues such as culture, human physical wellbeing, prosperity and economic development, political systems and the environment among others.49 Globalization and international security cannot be separated. Globalization has led to the freedom of people moving from one country to another. People now have the freedom to enter into other countries to trade and do other trade in certain goods and services. This freedom is sometimes abused because the people who enter into these countries may bring unwanted materials that may comprise or threat the security of the citizens. Globalization has allowed nations to connect to each other and products to freely move from one nation to the next. This free movement of products also puts a nation at a risk of receiving illegal products that may threaten its security. References Behrens, H., Globalization Vibrates the 21st century (Lithaus, Berlin: Lithaus Uni-Edition, 2010). Bhagwati, J., In Defense of Globalization (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).  Longworth, R., Caught in the Middle: America's the Age of Globalism (New York: Bloomsbury, 2007). Moore, K. & David, L., Origins of Globalization (New York: Routledge, 2009). Murray, W. E., Geographies of Globalization (New York: Routledge, 2006). Osterhammel, J. & Niels, P. P., Globalization: A Short History (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2005). Sachs, J., The End of Poverty (New York: The Penguin Press, 2005). Sheila L. C Globalization and Belonging: The Politics of Identity in a Changing World (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). Smith, C., International Trade and Globalization (Stocksfield: Anforme, 2007). Steger, M., Globalism: the new market ideology (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002). Steger, M., Globalization: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). Steger, M., Globalization (New York: Sterling Publishing, 2009). Tausch, A., Multicultural Europe: Effects of the Global Lisbon Process (Hauppauge, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2008). Read More