1. A good thesis sentence will make a claim.

2. A good thesis sentence will control the

argument.

3. A good thesis statement will provide a

structure for your argument.

A thesis statement is your road map.

What is a Thesis Statement?

Geographical, environmental and institutional differences are

used to explain why there exists an unequal distribution of wealth

among many countries today. Robinson and Acemoglu argue that a

country’s institutions are key to its development while Diamond claims

that the difference in wealth and poverty among nations is defined not

only by culture and institutions, but also of its geography. However,

these positions fail to explain that in a number of undeveloped

countries specifically in Latin America, South Asia and Southeast Asia,

natural resources are abundant and democratic institutions exist.

Therefore, in order to understand the emergence of unequal distribution

of wealth among countries, I suggest that we look back to the history of

colonialism. In doing so, we can trace the trajectory of each country’s

development while being attentive to its unique geography, culture and

political institutions.

Complex interdependence, according to Joseph Nye and

Robert Keohane’s Globalization: What’s New? What’s Not? (And So

What?), is an ideal and hypothetical form of existence of our world

where channels of communications between societies expanded,

where an increasing number of issues are discussed and regulated at

the international level, and where military globalism dramatically

decreases (Keohane and Nye 2000, 115). The gradual decline in

military globalism in a world of complex interdependence, they argue,

results from the continuous economic and social globalization.

However, such prediction does not reflect the fact that military

globalism has grown in order to combat elements that endanger the

global economic and social order.

GRADING

✓+ Very Effective

✓ Partially Effective

✓- Needs Improvement

I Needs Substantial Work

Argument:

Clear thesis statement or argument at the beginning and written as a direct response to

the question.

Evidence:

Good choice of quotes from assigned readings that bolster main and secondary

arguments.

Conclusion:

Conclusion leaves a reader a clear sense of the main argument ("So what?").

Overall Structure, Style, Clarity and Citation:

Strong topic sentences, focused, consistent logic, clarity, no awkward sentences or

transitions, correct grammar and citations.

One of the more useful descriptions of globalization is offered

by the political scientist David Held, who identifies it as:

– “the stretching of social relations across space”

– “the intensification of flows and networks of interaction”

– “the increasing interpenetration of economic and social

practices”

– “the emergence of a global institutional infrastructure”

Globalization as a process not a thing

Stretched social relations across space

The existence of cultural, economic and political networks of

connection across the world

Time-space

compression

Time-space compression:

processes and

technologies (internet,

airplanes, etc.) that reduce

the significance of distance

and accelerate the

experience of time

Reduced significance of distance

Accelerated experience of time

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. secretary of state John

Kerry in Geneva September 12, 2013 discussing agreement on Syrian

chemical weapons

Stretched social and economic relations:

Diasporic communities and remittances

Intensification of flows and networks

of interaction

Increased

interpenetration of

economic and

social practices

Deepening of

economic and social

practices and

exchanges which

bring distant cultures,

and markets together

at the local level and

global stage

Political and social

interpenetration: Otpor,

the Arab Spring

and the Occupy

movements

Global infrastructure

1) Communications and

transportation technologies

and standards

2) The formal and informal

institutions and political

arrangements that facilitate

the function of globalized

processes

Political institutions and globalization

Post-WWII international finance and trade

institutions

• Bretton Woods conference in July 1944 set up organizations

to regulate international finance and trade following WWII

– Participants: 44 allied countries

• Creates the International Bank for Reconstruction and

Development (becomes World Bank) and IMF

– Three years later the General Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT) negotiated (replaced by WTO in 1995)

• Underlying principles: Development through open markets;

interdependent economies make war less likely; exchange

rate stability to prevent sharp contractions in trade

World Trade Organization

– Founded in 1995 as successor to GATT, the

WTO is a forum for negotiating,

implementing and enforcing international

trade agreements

– Binding and enforceable commitments to

non-discriminatory trade practices

World Trade Organization

International Monetary Fund

– Large-scale lender of last resort for

countries suffering from exchange rate

and balance of payments problems

– Lending terms linked to implementation of

macro-economic restructuring

International Monetary Fund

Structural adjustments and the ‘Washington

Consensus’

1) Budget cuts

2) Devaluation of

currencies

3) Trade liberalization

4) Ending price controls

or subsidies

5) Privatization of state-

owned enterprises

6) Tax reforms

7) Deregulation

The World Bank

– Provides technical and financial assistance to

developing countries for development projects

(roads, dams, education, health care, etc.)

– Increasingly assistance is being linked to ‘good

governance’ outcomes

• Six indicators: Voice and accountability, political

instability and violence, government effectiveness,

regulatory burden, rule of law, control of corruption

The World Bank

United Nations

United Nations

– Founded in 1945 as a replacement for the

ineffective League of Nations; provides a

forum for international cooperation and

dialogue, and ratification of resolutions,

concerning a host of political, economic,

peace and security, legal, and humanitarian

issues

Unevenness of globalization across and

within countries

• Four key dimensions of globalization– Stretched social relations across space

– Intensification of flows and networks of interaction

– Increased interpenetration of economic and social life

– Global infrastructure

• Globalization does not float in the ether…it is a set of processes that unevenly connects or binds together societies and places

So what’s new, what’s not,

and why does it matter?

The increasing degree of globalism is what

people are referring to when talking about

globalization

“Globalization is the process by which

globalism becomes increasingly thick”

“Globalization and deglobalization refer to the

increase or decline of globalism”

Need to distinguish globalization and

globalism

So what is globalism?

Two dimensions:

“Globalism is a state of the world involving

networks of interdependence at multicontinental

distances. The linkages occur through flows and

influences of capital and goods, information and

ideas, and people and forces, as well as

environmentally and biologically relevant

substances (such as acid rain or pathogens).””

Multilateral networks of connections not single linkages

Relations of

inter-

dependence

among NATO

members as

an example

of military

globalism

Multicontinental

rather than regional

networks of

interdependence

1) Economic

2) Military

3) Environmental

4) Social and cultural

Forms of globalism

Economic globalism

“Long distance flows of goods, services and capital…

organization of processes that are linked to these flows”

Military globalism

“Long distance networks of interdependence in which

force, and the threat or promise of force, are employed”

Environmental globalism

“Long distance transport of materials in the atmosphere or

oceans, or of biological substances such as pathogens or

genetic materials, that affect human health and wellbeing”

Social and cultural globalism

“The movement of ideas, information, images and people”

Variation in globalization and de-globalization

trends among the four dimensions across time

Decrease in economic globalism accompanied by

increase in military globalism in the years leading up

to WWII

Globalism as a phenomenon with ancient roots

“The issue is not how old globalism is, but rather how

‘thin’ or ‘thick’”

1) Density of networks

2) Increased institutional velocity

(how rapidly a system and units

within it change)

3) Increased transnational

participation and complex

interdependence

Present thickening of globalism as leading to

changes in not just degree, but also kind:

Spread of the 2007-9 financial crisis across the globe

With increased velocity of flows and density of networks

distant events are felt more strongly than before

Thickening globalism and increased

uncertainty?

Globalization and complex interdependence

as a challenge to the sovereign state system?

Complex interdependence:

“Multiple channels between societies, with multiple actors,

not just states; multiple issues, not arranged in any clear

hierarchy; the irrelevance of the threat of or use of force

among states linked by complex interdependence”

“Translated into the language of globalism, the politics of

complex interdependence would be one in which levels of

economic, environmental and social globalism are high and

military globalism is low”

Why are some countries rich and others

poor?

a) Cultural explanations

b) Geographical explanations

c) Institutional explanations

1) Racist or ethnocentric

2) Gets causal relationships wrong—that is, what

is seen as cultural practices are product of

political institutions, incentives or historical

legacies

3) Culture treated as fixed, which makes difficult

to explain changes in countries’ economic

fortunes, or variations in economic

development among countries that putatively

share cultural traits

Criticisms of cultural explanations

Geography

Jared Diamond’s

“peanut butter

sandwich” map of

poorer tropical

and richer

temperate zone

countries in

Africa

1. Geographical determinism that ignores or is incapable

of explaining shifting fortunes over time

1. Difficulty in accounting for exceptions or divergences

in countries with similar geographical features without

reference to historical, cultural, or institutional factors

Criticisms of geographical explanations

“The reason that Nogales, Arizona, is much richer than

Nogales, Sonora, is simple; it is because of the very

different institutions on the two sides of the border, which

create very different incentives for the inhabitants of

Nogales, Arizona, versus Nogales, Sonora”

Institutions

Extractive economic

institutions

Practices and policies

“designed to extract

incomes and wealth

from one subset of

society [the masses] to

benefit a different

subset [the governing

elite]”

Inclusive economic

institutions

“those that allow and

encourage participation

by the great mass of

people in economic

activities that make

best use of their talents

and skills and that

enable individuals to

make the choices they

wish”

Inclusive versus extractive economic

institutions

“While economic institutions are critical for

determining whether a country is poor or

prosperous, it is politics and political institutions

that determine what economic institutions a

country has”

The primary importance of political

institutions

1) Political pluralism, where power rests with a

broad coalition of society or variety of groups,

rather than a narrow set of elites

2) Functional central state institutions which are

capable of providing public goods, supporting

property rights, and ensuring a transparent and

fair legal process

Unlike geography and culture (as typically understood),

institutions can change fairly rapidly, thus better at explaining

shifts in relative economic fortunes

A key strength of the institutional argument

Criticisms

Not a random distribution of inclusive institutions; broad

pattern fits geographical explanations such as temperate

climates, navigable rivers and landlocked countries

“Why have some countries ended

up with good institutions and

others haven’t? The most

important factor behind their

emergence is the historical

duration of centralized

government”—Jared Diamond

“The persistence into the twentieth century of a specific

institutional pattern inimical to growth in Mexico and Latin

America is well illustrated by the fact that, just as in the

nineteenth century, the pattern generated economic

stagnation and political instability, civil wars and coups, as

groups struggled for the benefits of power”—Acemoglu and

Robinson