Pages 220-223 discusses the topic of political globalization. It begins by describing a few terms we have learned already, like what "the state" is and sovereignty. I found it much more interesting when continuing reading, especially when the author begins to touch on the WTO and the IMF. Lechner talks about the differences between these NGOs and others, as these two specifically help manage the world economy. I also was interested when he was talking about how many of these TNCs have become larger economic forces than certain entire countries. I might be the crazy one here, but how does this sound like a free market trade? That certain corporations have gained so much money and power that they rival and routinely overpower countries? Lechner goes on to describe how Susan Strange, a British international relations scholar, argued that technological change was forcing states to do the bidding of corporations. Yeah. I do not really know what insightful comments to add to this, because she is completely right. We have seen this and talked about it in discussion, particularly when discussing the sweatshops and textile industry in certain Asian countries that depend on this industry for economic purposes.
Pages 300-303 discusses NGO's like Doctors Without Borders and how they are organized, what they plan/hope to do, and how they go about it. I really liked this excerpt from the reading, "Barlow challenges the oft‐repeated claim that the international human rights regime was a Western creation, pointing out that the original proposals for a UN Charter barely mentioned human rights and both the United States and Britain resisted the establishment of a human rights regime. Many non‐Western countries pushed successfully for an explicit rights declaration, and non‐Western countries were a majority of the members of the first Human Rights Commission," as it challenges the earlier part of the textbook where it discussed how many people see globalization as essentially "western cultural dominance"
Chapter 28 presents the idea that companies and corporations have taken over the idea of the state. As the corps. grew more powerful, the state lost its power. This has continued until, as the book states, "Where states were once the masters of markets, now it is the markets which, on many crucial issues, are the masters over the governments of states," This chapter is a great, if not slightly hefty worded, description of the power that these corporations now hold. Lechner goes on to mention cold war stuff with puppet states, which we have covered pretty extensively. I found the section on mutually assured destruction particularly interesting. The idea that technology has gotten so good that its mere existence is threatening the existence of the state as the existence of the bombs themselves have simultaneously guaranteed/prevented nuclear destruction... it's like the world's most stressful example of Schrödinger's Cat. And we get to find out whether the cat is kicking or not within our lifetimes. How fun!
Chapter 30 finally addresses what I have been wanting to get to all along. We have talked about all the ways globalization is bad for us, the economy, and the world, but there have been no solutions or remedies discussed until here. I think the second to last section, "Do not use 'competitiveness' as an excuse for domestic reform" is really insightful, and that certain politicians should have a read. Any economic issues can not be traced back to a separate country as the issue, and they should instead have reform within their own economy to instead promote domestic production. People are stubborn. Many will not want to change their ways if it is simply to show up another country.
The final part, the NYT article, was an insightful read. It may not have been the main focus of the article, but I enjoyed reading about Nunur, the farmer and taxi driver (who did not want his last name included for safety reasons, but approved his first name, face, occupations, and general location...) Anyways, the article discusses the Belt and Road Initiative in China, which is a plan to connect many of the already established economic corridors that run through the three major continents over there, with the goal of improving trade times, cost, and safety through the region. This idea is still mostly just an idea, but the proposed scale of the plan is impressive. If this was able to be pulled off, and if it was able to stay productive, it would make trade much easier in those regions. Of course, this does not come without its drawbacks. Would it be China if there were not egregious human rights violations? I don't think so! I have heard for years of China's violations against the Uighur people, and seeing here that it is still talked about so nonchalantly is heartbreaking. It is another scenario where the curse of technology is present, where we see horrible things happening to people on the other side of the world, with no way to improve their situation. Many such cases arise in pursuit of the reward of a dollar. The greedy simply do not realize how much a dollar can cost.
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