The New Globalism

1
The New Globalism

• 1980 to the Present

2
Global Challenges

• Pollution and Population
• Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion, 1986
• Acid rain, holes in the ozone layer, global
  warming, greenhouse effect
• Population boom in developing countries caused,
  in part, by decline in death rate due to
  introduction of Western medicine
• Population growth a major factor in growing
  economic divide between Northern and Southern
  Hemispheres

3

• North versus South?
• With some exceptions, people in the South
  experienced lower standards of living and
  restricted access to health care
• Sub-Saharan Africa plagued by environmental
  destruction, drought, famine, and civil wars
• South Africa
• Apartheid system dismantled
• Former political prisoner Nelson Mandela elected
  president under new democratic constitution in
  1994

4

• Islam Confronts the West
• Islamic fundamentalism offered an alternative to
  westernization, but power in the Middle East
  remained fragmented. Pan-Arabic or Pan-Islamic
  unity proved difficult to achieve.
• Afghanistan War, 1979-1989
• Soviets defeated by Islamic rebels
• Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
• Gulf War, 1990-1991
• Saddam Husseins attempt to annex
• Kuwait foiled by international force led
• By U.S.
• Ongoing conflict and negotiations between
• Israel and the Palestinians
• Sept. 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.
• Removal of the Taliban regime in
• Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces, Oct.
• 2001
• Fall of Husseins regime in Iraq,
• March-April 2003

5

• The Rise of the Pacific Economy
• Shift in economic power from the Atlantic region
  to the Pacific in the 1980s
• Asian Tigers Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong
  Kong, and Singapore
• IMF policies, irresponsible and corrupt financial
  practices caused severe economic crisis in Asia
  in late 1990s

6
Political Change

• Challenges to the Welfare State
• Margaret Thatcher in England (prime minister,
  1979-1990)
• Thatcherism Private enterprise seen as key to
  reviving British economy
• Tighten money supply to stem inflation
• Tax cuts to spur investment
• Privatization of government-owned enterprises
• Rolled back social welfare programs
• Crushed labor union power

7

• The Reagan Revolution in the United States
• Reaganomics
• Tax cuts and reduced government spending on
  domestic programs
• Expansion in military spending to counter Soviets
• Germany and France
• West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl (Christian
  Democrat)
• Cut taxes and government programs without
  worsening class and racial divisions
• French president François Mitterand (socialist)
  held the line on the welfare state until forced
  to share power with conservatives

8

• Economic and Political Integration in Europe
• Treaty of Maastricht, 1991
• Transformation of EEC into European Union, 1992
• Common currency (European Currency Unit, or
  euro), 1999
• European Parliament

9

• The End of the Cold War
• Mikhail Gorbachev
• Background
• Born 1931
• Worked way up through Soviet bureaucracy
• Became general secretary of the Communist party
  in 1985, president of USSR, 1988

10

• Perestroika (restructuring)
• Reduce bureaucracy
• Allow individual initiative in government
  economy

• Glasnost (openness)
• Uncensored public opinion as an avenue to
  reviving socialist society

11

• Accomplishments
• Abandoned anti-western orientation
• Retreated from communist dogma and ceased
  intervention in Soviet-bloc states
• Attempted to create a socialist democracy
• Tried to catch up with Western prosperity
• Negotiated arms reduction agreements with U.S.
  presidents Reagan and George H. W. Bush
• Withdrew Soviets from Afghanistan

12
The Collapse of Communism in Europe, 1989-1991
13

• Poland
• Pope John Paul II (r. 1978-)
• Former archbishop of Cracow
• Role of Catholic Church in supporting Polish
  resistance to Communism
• Lech Walesa Solidarity
• Independent trade union formed in 1980
• Military dictatorship imposed martial law, Dec.
  1981, forcing Solidarity underground
• Solidarity legalized, Jan. 1989, wins first free
  elections in June
• Walesa elected president, 1990

14

• Hungary
• Communist partys monopoly on power ended, Oct.
  1989
• East Germany
• People leaving through Hungary Czechoslovakia
• Berlin Wall comes down Communist government
  forced out, Nov. 1989
• German reunification, Oct. 1990

15

• Czechoslovakia Václav Havel velvet
  revolution, Nov. 1989
• Romania dictator Nicolae Ceausescu overthrown
  and executed, Dec. 1989
• Bulgaria and Albania communist regimes ended,
  1990

16

• Yugoslavia
• End of communist rule, break up, descent into
  ethnic warfare
• Slobodan Milosevic in power in Serbia, 1987-2000
• Wars against Croatia, Bosnian Muslims, and Kosovo
  Albanians NATO bombing campaigns
• ethnic cleansing

17
Collapse of the Soviet Union

• Soviet republics demanding independence
• Lithuania and other Baltic republics seceded from
  USSR, Spring 1990
• Pressure by reformers who wanted quick transition
  to market economy democracy
• Boris Yeltsin, president of Russian Republic
  (1990-1999)
• Economic collapse

18

• Coup Attempt, August 1991
• Hard-line communists last gasp
• Yeltsins finest moment
• The End, Dec. 24, 1991
• USSR dissolved, effective Jan. 1, 1992
• Gorbachev dismissed ceded power to Yeltsin

19

• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Composed of 11 former Soviet republics
• Still dominated by Russia
• Difficulties in making transition to market
• economy and democratic government
• Corruption, organized crime
• Ethnic conflicts
• Disastrous campaigns against Muslim
• rebels in Chechnya

20

• Global Culture and Western Civilization
• International Migration
• Refugees from warfare and political persecution
• Millions emigrated to Western Europe and the U.S.
• Other areas, among them the Middle East, Nigeria,
  and Singapore, brought in millions of foreigners
  for the labor force
• Influx of new populations caused political
  parties with racist programs to achieve some
  electoral success in Western Europe

21

• The Information Revolution
• Rapid expansion of the Internet in the 1990s
  posed another challenge to the nation-state
• Importance of computer skills helped to create
  both a new elite and a new underclass
• Disease
• Global epidemics of AIDS and now, perhaps, SARS

22

• The Global Diffusion of Culture
• The Globalization of Pop Culture
• Globalism and the Arts
• Postmodernism
• Reflected new global arts, in which various forms
  coexisted without a central unifying theme or a
  privileged canon
• Also seen as defining a movement away from
  various 18th-century ideas, such as individualism
  or belief in the nation-state
• Another definition stressed the unfreedom or
  irrationality that shaped human life
• For some, the message was that the rational,
  independent, and superior West was an illusion