International Political Economy - Essay Example

International political economy Date Institution Question: “Global problems require global solutions. We are faced with an environment where unilateralism often prevails, yet we face a conundrum in that all aspects of economic policy require collective action in order to be effective.” Do you agree with this statement? Explain and justify your position. Introduction Globalization has increased the interaction between governments converting the world into a global village. The interactions among governments have been increased by the growth in international business. Nations have also been pulled together by challenges and risks that have attracted international attention. However, many nations have preferred to shun collective action and pursue a unilateralism approach to governance as they set out to pursue their own interests. This paper will show how critical it is for nations to realize the importance of collective action given the current state of economic cooperation among nations around the world. The paper will first review unilateralism and how it has failed to address the current demands of a globalised economy. The paper will critically analyses and explores the issues that surround the global economy and discuss why these issues are better addressed through collective action. Unilateralism refers to the desire or action towards opting out of a multilateral framework or acting alone to address a given global or regional problem as opposed to participating in collective action. Different nations have opted out of multilateral frameworks to act on their own because they do not desire to subscribe to the general principles of conduct that are being enforced or negotiated or because in some instances, they consider those principles inimical to their national interests. In many cases, however, there is no absolute dichotomy that differentiates between multilateralism and unilateralism and there can exist many graduations between these orientations as they coexist with one another (Malone & Khong, 2003). As the cold war progressed, there was extensive bipolar power distribution and there was global support towards the creation of multilateral cooperation. After the soviet empire was dissolved Europe was coming together and there was high expectation that the united state’s power would decline. However, with the diminishing power of the Soviet Union, the United States emerged as a global unipolar power house with widespread unilateral power distribution instead of the multipolar distribution earlier envisaged (Waltz, 1993; Mastanduno, 1997). The US government felt freer for action and the country’s power was rising driving its own agenda and serving its interests. It is also widely stated that no clear argument justifies whether unilateralism is the best or whether multilateralism remains the best approach to addressing global matters. The suitability of the approach, therefore, is seen to depend on the circumstances (Carpanelli, Savaresi, & Sindico, 2015). In particular situations, unilateralism has been found to be a better approach since it provides timely initiatives that would otherwise be delayed by multilateralism. For instance, the unilateral declaration of the United States in 2001 of its goal of withdrawing from the Antiballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty so as to go ahead with its missile defense has been cited as an example. Again, just like in the Kyoto Treaty on global warming and emission, multilateralism approach could be ill-advised as a result of its tendency to reflect lowest-common denominator temporizing. At the same time, the globe has continued to experience a ray of issues that have affected the global populations and have pulled global bodies together. These issues have affected the global economy, environment, human capabilities and the decision making process with regard to cooperation at the global level. These issues have become increasingly interconnected with ramifications across many nations in the world. For instance, energy consumption around the world has continued to drive climate change and this has threatened ocean life and fisheries by changing chemistry and temperatures of the ocean as well as other food resources by influencing rainfall patterns around the world (Hale, 2011). National and regional economic bodies have become more integrated with one another as they engage in trade, technology transfer and production chains. Financial markets are also becoming increasingly interconnected. This kind of integration has offered opportunities for global populations to access even larger markets so that they have realized greater incomes in an expanded market. At the same time, this kind of integration has posed a number of challenges for the global society, coming with serious risks. In such a global economy, a serious event like the financial crisis in a given part of the world is easily spread to other parts of the world. The financial crisis that greatly affected the world economy in 2008 showed the extent to which mismanaged risks do not know national boundaries. The downturn impacted several lives in the world as the financial institutions failed to contain the risks they retain leading to an extensive disruption of the global financial market, a rapid reduction in growth and stalling of progress towards the MDGs. The crisis also undid approximately 7 to 14 years of economic progress in places worst hit. A further 30 million people lost their jobs across the world as the crisis progressed increasing the rates of unemployment to highest levels (Ötker-Robe and Podpiera 2013). With the tight interconnections in the world today, health risks have also cut across national boundaries, increasing the need for international coordination efforts to improve prevention and control efforts. The world now sees increased air travel where individuals cover great distances across the world in short periods of time and this could provide the avenue for free passage of infections. The increased mobility of persons and products has therefore increased the spread of such diseases (like SARS, Ebola and AIDS) that have taken away many lives around the world. At the same time, the interconnectedness of the nations around the world has intensified globalization and scientific breakthroughs that have enhanced the understanding of many disease causing microorganisms including their detection and diagnosis which have increased the ability of nations to control and support the efforts of scientists, in passing information to remote risk areas. Health concerns have thus increased the need for close coordination among nations, and their collective action as they strive to contain these concerns and protect their citizens (Meara et al., 2015). The need for global efforts has also been directed towards risks that evolve more slowly, with minimal visible implications. Changes in the global climate have emerged as one of the biggest risks around the world that has been linked with human activities including deforestration and the burning of fossil fuels. Extremes of the climatic conditions like heat waves, wildfires and droughts have been on the rise over the last 50 years and this trend has could worsen as the concentration of greenhouse gasses increase towards unprecedented levels with consequences that could reach catastrophic levels. While every nation remains vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, developing countries will bear the greatest burdens due to their limited capacities to prepare and develop strategies to address the consequences of the greater frequency and severity of weather conditions, spread of infectious diseases, increasing sea levels and reduced food and water security (IPCC, 2007). In a number of instances, efforts by an isolated country could result in negative externalities which could undermine the development efforts and stability of others. For instance, state policies developed for the promotion of growth and eradication of poverty in one country could lead to increased pressure on shared resources like oceans and water ways. This could result in unbalanced overexploitation of such resources, a situation that could hurt other nations and future generations. Creation of water dams upstream could significantly affect water availability for many other dependants in neighboring countries. Therefore, the isolation of projects and the pursuit of goals that are not designed for the collective benefit of countries would likely have negative consequences for other countries. If nations only focus in the safeguarding of their interests, such actions could be damaging. The world has also experienced great globalization of labour markets and trade. As a result, there have been concerns about how recent international trade agreements can be fair and how they will address the effects of freer trade, employment and improved working conditions. These issues have resulted in huge protests within the World trade organization meetings and the protests have helped greatly changed negotiations on international trade. The global populations have further fought for equalization of the otherwise an unbalanced and unequal distribution if income and business opportunities. The globe has witnessed shifting patterns of global poverty as well as the global power since 2000. The number of global citizens that live in extreme poverty has reduced by half, greatly changing the paradigm in which developmental policies function (Ramalingam, 2013). The globe has also had to deal with challenges like economic and social exclusion, environmental pollution and state fragility which have grown more prominent on the globe’s development agenda. These issues can not anymore be addressed by policy actors as isolated issues. As the globe continues to experience difficulties in its agenda for development due to the interconnectedness and the overlapping nature of surrounding issues, it has also witnessed increased complexities particularly as a result of the expanded number of actors who have the capacity to potentially act as veto players as major decisions are made at the global level (Tsebelis, 2002). The world has seen the increasing influence of emerging economies like China, Brazil and India in matters of the global scale which has considerably reduced the influence of the European aid as a major global vehicle development support. As the global development policy environment has continued to change, but of greater importance has been the increasing importance of the issues that could only be addressed through collective action. Two major types of collective goods have been highlighted (Sachs & Schmitt-Traud, 2014). The first one is the made up of the rules, regulations and mechanisms of governance that set the ground for international cooperation and economic engagement. According to the international regime theory, such regulations are important for guiding policy as well as its implementation, and at the same time there has to be cooperation among states for the policies to be upheld (Keohane, 1984). This kind of collective action is critical for policies like the international trade regime, the Paris agenda on aid effectiveness and the global rules on taxation. The second category includes those aimed at global public goods that need direct investment, especially those from public resources. Issues like natural disasters, provision of public health, climatic stability and humanitarian response to wars do not only require nations to invest but also to cooperate and coordinate efforts and resources amongst themselves, and other multilateral and non-government players (Sachs & Schmitt-Traub, 2014). Provision of public good has usually required collective action by a number of actors. The challenge of collective action, however, has been the fact that in many cases, the individual actors fail to act in a manner that drives the common agenda even if the action would benefit them (Olson, 1965). As a result, public goods provision has been subjected to collective action failures that have led to suboptimal outcomes. In development programs, this failure has impacted on how members pursue their goals. As far as process is concerned, the actors have been known to prefer to free-ride where individuals prefer to minimize their contributions to the project while expecting to enjoy the benefits. In an effort to fight this free-rider challenge, nations have been provided with incentives to motivate them to comply with provisions of collective bodies like the European Union. The international community has played a great role in addressing these global issues. This community has the capacity and resources to respond to managed issues that go beyond the national capacity. Collective action provides the opportunity for the community to target key constraints faced by countries while they mitigate these risks. The international community can also assist in the internalization of the externalities that could result from the actions of particular nations by establishing global regulations and policies and through the provision of the platform that will facilitate policy dialogue. The platform will also improve the access to markets and resources that are required to protect and provide insurance against the risks. Conclusion The developments in the global economic cooperation has seen increased interdependence and interconnectedness brought about by advancement of global transportation and business. As such, it has become increasingly necessary for interactions between and among governments as they pursue individual, regional and global goals. Many governments, however, have remained inclined towards the pursuit of unilateralism approach to their strategy. Through the unilateralism approach, these nations are able to drive their own agendas and avoid the need to subscribe to the general principles that govern multilateralism strategies. The motivation to pursue unilateralism, however, remains obscured in ill-intensions and lack of collective goodwill. With the recent developments across the world, nations continue to face the need to come together in policy and action in order to address the various issues from economic, physical, health to even natural tragic disasters. The pursuit of goals in isolation has become increasingly unrealistic due to the inter-reliance among nations. The growth of multinational business also means that governments have to protect the interest of business across borders. It is therefore important for governments across the world to come together and pull resources, technologies, policies and capabilities in dealing with issues of global and regional scale to ensure that every participating nation’s interests will be safeguarded References Waltz K.N. (1993). The emerging structure of International politics. International Security. Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 44-79; Mastanduno M. (1997). Preserving the Unipolar Moment: Realist Theories and US Grand Strategy After the Cold war. 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The inclusion of emissions from aviation in the EU ETS: Unilateralism vs multilateralism in international environmental governance. Questions of International Law, Zoom In, 11, 1-2. Read More