GLOBALISATION

Globalisation is a “multi-faceted” phenomenon “impacting” on social, economic and political spheres of human experience.

• Multiple factors distinguish the globalisation process of today. These distinctions include more rapid communications, marked liberalisation and global integration of the production of goods and services.
• The root or the foundation of globalisation is considered to be in the advance of global communication networks as the communications revolution has made it possible for ideas, information and cultural values to transcend seamlessly beyond nation-state boundaries. In the process, these changes have triggered new political and social dynamics across the world.
• There are others who emphasise solely the economic characteristic of the process of globalisation. To them, globalisation refers not to a finally “interconnected world market” but simply to the increasing “interconnection of markets” of different countries largely on account of the liberalisation of trade, capital investment and division of services across the world.
• Contesting this approach of characterising globalisation as synonymous with “free-market capitalism”, others argue that globalisation is two dimensional, it serves as powerful vehicle that raises economic growth, spreads technology and contributes to better living standards in countries of both the developed and developing world; and two, it “assaults” the sovereign authority of the nation-state, “erodes” local culture and tradition and even “threatens” economic and social stability.

CORE CHARACTERISTICS OF GLOBALISATION

Based on these variations in the characterisation of globalisation. it is possible to identify at least five distinct features of the term

• It is most usefully employed as a descriptive rather than a prescriptive term. It does not designate some desirable or undesirable end to be accepted or avoided. It merely reflects a set of social, political, economic and technological forces that have recently become distinctly pronounced.
• The term in its usage is perhaps relatively new whereas the phenomenon it designates could by no means be treated as new. The past has also experienced the phenomenon that the term “globalisation” entails.
• The institutions that have emerged as a consequence of the globalisation process extend beyond the power and authority of nation-states. So much so, in the “globalising” international affairs, nation-states are no longer exclusive actors as in the past but besides there are other actors too which, among others, include non-government organisations (NGOs), environmental movements, transnational corporations, ethnic nationalities and multi-state regional organisations.
• In the ‘globalising” world, the role performance of the new actors encompasses a relatively large field because of the growing number of economic, political and communication networks. To that extent, these networks have made nation-state boundaries porous and permeable to tile movement of people, goods, services, ideas and information.
• The globalisation process has not only made international relations more expansive but also intensive because there are not only greater number of actors and networks influencing one another, but more importantly. the impact each one makes on the other is qualitatively greater than in the past. Global media networks, the products of transnational corporations and the large migration of people from one part of the world to the other have greatly influenced the social and cultural moorings of people across the world.