Global politics, governance, and the globalization

1. GLOBAL
POLITICS,
GOVERNANCE,
AND THE
GLOBALIZATION
IN THE ASIA-
PACIFIC AND
SOUTH ASIA

2. THE GLOBAL SOUTH
 South Asia as a region is
peculiar. Its trade, capital
flows, and economic
management differ from
other regions in how the
region has globalized,
although it must be
mentioned that there is a lot
of diversity within the region.

3.  Its trade characteristics are different
from that of East Asia. While East Asia
benefitted from an export led growth
strategy based on manufactured
goods, the size of manufacturing
sector in South Asia is relatively small.
There are some examples of success in
garment exports from Bangladesh/Sri
Lanka, and in this sense its experience
is no different from East Asia. But
most South Asian countries have
much larger service sectors. They
seem to have benefitted more from
modern service exports and traditional
service exports such as remittances.

4.  India's growth has been spearheaded by exports of modern services
and less by goods exports. Remittances and traditional service
exports are very important to Bangladesh and Nepal. Are service
exports as vulnerable as goods exports to the global downturn?
There seems to be emerging evidence that service exports are more
resilient compared to goods exports. Globalization of services is still
at an early stage. So, as consumers pull back in the United States,
service trade is likely to be less impacted compared to goods trade,
as consumers and firms still want to access more and cheaper
services, and benefit from outsourcing.

5.  Can the loss in external demand and reduced trade flows in goods and
services be compensated by increased trade in ideas/knowledge and
technology? Trade contributes to growth not only through trade in
goods but also trade in ideas and technology. These have huge
spillovers and externalities and enhance productivity. The global crisis
has not reduced the stock of global knowledge. South Asia has a lot to
learn from USA and Japan. There is a huge room for South Asia to
"catch up” with developed economies. This catch up can generate
growth even if developed economies do not grow, although global
growth is even better.

6. GLOBAL INEQUALITY AND THE FUTURE
 All societies past and present are
characterized by social differentiation, a
process in which people are set apart for
differential treatment by virtue of their
statuses, roles, and other social characteristics.
The process of social differentiation does not
require that people evaluate certain roles and
activities as being more important than others.
 Nevertheless, social differentiation sets the
stage for social inequality, which is a condition
in which people have unequal access to
wealth, power, and prestige. This description
fits most of the citizens in the global south.

7. REASONS ON ANALYZING STATES AND
INTERSTATES INEQUALITIES

8.  The decolonization process produced states, now
recognized as sovereign under the system of international
law promoted by the United Nations. The likelihood of
being poor is higher for people who live in states now
considered associated with the global south regions like
Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Most of these countries
were colonized and they are inadequately represented in
global organizations and the various international banks.

9. Solutions to problems produced by
globalization are largely forwarded and
articulated on a state level. The state remains
the main mechanism for social transfers,
making the strongest vehicle for social
redistribution.

10.  Even phenomena largely considered transnational are the
results of state policies. Acts of deterritorialization such as
labor migration need to be placed in the context of the state.
In the case of Filipino OFWs is a good example. The
remittances sent by the workers abroad boost the domestic
economy and the state economic growth is highly reliant on
the remittance which is worth billions of dollars annually. In
this sense, transnational global spheres are already pre-
figured by the policies of state authorities.

11. COLONIALISM: HOW THE GLOBAL SOUTH RESPONDED
How have the peoples of global south
responded to colonialism and other
linear visions of modernity? The
following are some of the variations (in
different degrees).

12. SOLIDARITY
 The notion of solidarity among colonized states was present from
the beginning of anti-colonialism. Such solidarities would serve as
the foundation for contemporary conceptions of global south.
Anderson (2007) has shown that full resistance against Spanish
colonialism in Latin America and the Philippines benefitted from
the increased interaction of political dissidents amidst and early
phase of globalization in the 19th century, a globalization that
allowed for the spreading of anarchist and anti-colonial ideas.

13. SOCIALIST INTERNATIONALISM
The socialist internationalism (the union of
socialist parties, which are now called as the
social democrats) pave the way for theories
that examined the world economic system in
the light of exploitive interactions between
core and peripheral economies.

14. DECOLONIZATION
 The end of Second World War was the highpoint of
decolonization. The creations of the United Nations in 1945
paved the way for granting independence of over 80 ex-
colonies countries (United Nations, 2011).
 International law ceased to formally divide the world into
civilized and uncivilized nations. The enshrinement of the
principles of self-determinations, postcolonial nationalisms
could justify their causes within the range of international law.

15. THE EMERGENCE OF CONSERVATIVE ANTI-WESTERN NATIONALISM
AND REGIONALISM
Countries like Malaysia reveal how
criticisms of neo-colonialism may turn
reactionary (Berger, 2004). For Dirlik (2004)
this hints at the fact that Third Worldism is
implicated in a greater project of global
modernism.

16. THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
 In addition to differences in language and culture, the variation among states
and peoples in this region is enormous. Some of the world’s most
economically developed states are included in this region such as Japan,
South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. On the contrary it includes highly
impoverished countries such Cambodia, Laos and Nepal. It includes the
largest and most populous states on the glove such as China and India with
over million people and some of the world’s smallest such as Maldives and
Bhutan. The countries in this region also vary widely according to geography,
political system, historical experience, and broad demographic characteristics.

17. THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION
 The region makes up neatly a third of the world’s land mass and
two third of Global Population. The combined economies of the
region now generates the largest share of the global GDP at 35%
compared with Europe (28%) and North America (23%).
 However, despite the economic growth, there are still millions of
people affected by poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, Gender Inequality,
and other socio-economic problems in the region.

18. WHY GLOBAL POWERS ARE FOCUSED ON ASIA-PACIFIC AND
SOUTH ASIA
1. The Asia-Pacific and South Asia had emerged over the past
decade as a new political force in the world. This is due to the
robust economic growth in China and India and the strategic
implications this brings to regional and global players.
2. Japan still remains relevant through declining force in the
region and the world, and other countries including the
Koreas, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Pakistan all have economic
and strategic relevance in today’s global system.

19. EFFECTS OF GLOBALIZATION IN THE REGION