Globalisation has been an issue for people for a long time. Many people are suspicious of what they see as handing over control to overseas interests for little national benefit in return. You have only to see reports of the protests on the proposed Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPP) to see that – and I would bet that it will not get through the US Congress in Obama’s term.
But globalisation brings some big benefits including improving access to lower cost goods and services and allowing increased trade, assisting the movement of people and allowing a common approach to be taken to solving truly global problems. Free trade particularly benefits trading nations like New Zealand. And the reality is that the internet has brought globalisation whether we like it or not. So the flow of information – whether by email, twitter, website or whatever – is truly global and that is now unstoppable.
Globalisation is of course strongly sponsored by the UN because it is itself an international organisation and is in the business of doing things from an international point of view. In a smaller way globalisation was a driving force behind the creation of the European Community.
But globalisation is clearly in trouble.
“Brexit” has highlighted a range of concerns with current EC arrangements and they are certainly not confined to the UK. I think the complete breakup of the EC is unlikely, but I think changes will come to give EC involvement in country affairs a lighter touch.
A lot of this comes back to the way that people are genetic ally predisposed and behave. Humans are mostly social creatures and like to live in or be associated with communities with which they can identify and share common goals. Size is not necessarily an issue, but some kind of social cohesion and identity is. The social identity can be on as small a scale as a village or as large as a nation, but it must have some common basis to survive.
Communities which are artificially manufactured by forcing people together face a tough time to survive. In a way that is the story of strife in both Europe and the Middle East for the past 100 years– the forced creation of communities that have no common identity.
It is the basic reason that common sentiment in New Zealand is against combining with Australia, despite the economic benefits that might bring.
However, I don’t think globalisation is on the way out. I think there will always be a role for global organisations like the UN and the World Bank, and the benefits of freeing up trade are real and will continue to be important for much of the world. What will happen though I think is a retreat to a much lighter touch – agreements and arrangements that bring agreed benefits without too many national restrictions and interference.
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This is another of Bas Walker’s posts on GrownUps. Please look out for his articles, containing his Beachside Ponderings.
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