Answer to Question #145361 in History for Sitamika

Question

Has our capacity to cross continents and ocean in hours and our ability to keep potential enemies at bay by the destructive power of our weapons made the world safer or more dangerous over the last century

Answer 1

The Dark side of Globalization

Our capacity to cross continents and oceans in hours and ability to keep potential enemies at bay with the destructive power of our weapons can also be referred to as globalization. Globalization has had significant impact on our social, environmental, political and economic aspects of life. For instance, globalization has led to higher standards of living worldwide, improved technology and innovation, increased rate at which businesses and goods move (Burlacu, Gutu, Matei, Calitatea, 2018), it has led to the exchange of culture and ideas (Huang, 2009) and so much more. However, globalization has also had a number of negative effects that have been catastrophic to our lives. These includes human and drug trafficking, international terrorism and increased nuclear weapon generation (Weber, Barma, Kroenig & Ratner, 2007), an increased rate at which diseases and pathogenic infections travel, and adverse climate changes.

Globalization has led to the escalation of international crimes such as International terrorism, sex-trafficking, human and drug-trafficking. Scholars like Weber et al (2007) argue that globalization has made the world a disorderly and more dangerous place. He states that due to the ability of people to move from place to place at incredible speeds, there has been an acceleration of international terrorism. Weber lays the fault entirely on globalization and the relying of the world on a single most powerful state. The high demand for cheap labor in developed countries has led to the stemming of trafficking and exploitation of workers who are desperate thus exposing them to abuse and poor working conditions (Brewer, 2010). Besides, drug-trafficking has become a major and established business all over the world becoming very hard to root out. Therefore, the easing at which people travel across places easily has increased the rate of international crime.

The increased rate of generating nuclear weapons otherwise known as nuclear proliferation has led to many countries acquiring weapons of mass destruction. This not only includes nuclear weapons but also ballistic long-range miles which can travel many miles and cause massive destruction (Gaffney, 2006). the production of these weapons are harmful to the environment. The products that occur from these processes often end up on soils, rivers, oceans and in the air. In turn these products affect wildlife such as causing the extinction of some species. Moreover, they are harmful to the human health causing increased rates of cancer and genetic disorders. They also cause adverse climate changes such as global warming (Maresca and Mitchell, 2015). Therefore, globalization has not made the world any safer but rather put us in more danger.

Also, globalization has had other major impacts such as increasing the rate at which diseases and pathogenic infections spreads. For instance, the coronavirus moved across the world at astonishing speeds. Within just a few weeks, the virus became a global pandemic killing thousands of people (Busingye, 2020). Thereby, globalization has had a serious negative impact on our lives.

In conclusion, our capacity to cross oceans and continents within hours and ability to protect ourselves by the destructive power of our weapons has caused more harm than good. This is because these weapons have adverse effects on our environment, health and wildlife and the fact that globalization has also promoted international crimes such as terrorism and human and drug-trafficking.

References

Burlacu, S., Gutu, C., & Matei, F. O. (2018). Globalization–pros and cons. Calitatea, 19(S1), 122-125.

Busingye, G. (2020). Re: Has globalization contributed to the rapid spread of CORONAVIRUS infections? Can this be taken as one of the drawbacks of globalization?. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Has-globalization-contributed-to-the-rapid-spread-of-CORONAVIRUS-infections-Can-this-be-taken-as-one-of-the-drawbacks-of-globalization/5e9d868e1864ba0181248ae6/citation/download.

Brewer. D. (2010) Globalization and Human-trafficking: Collision of Worlds. Retrieved from:

https://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/trafficking/Globalization.pdf

Gaffney, H. H. (2009). Globalization and nuclear proliferation. In Globalization and WMD Proliferation (pp. 26-39). Routledge.

Huang, A. C. Y. (2009). Chinese Shakespeares: Two centuries of cultural exchange. Columbia University Press.

Maresca, L., & Mitchell, E. (2015). The human costs and legal consequences of nuclear weapons under international humanitarian law. International Review of the Red Cross, 97(899), 621-645.

Weber, S., Barma, N., Kroenig, M., & Ratner, E. (2007). How globalization went bad. Foreign policy, (158), 48.