Shatha Khalil *
Economic globalization works to integrate national and regional and local economies and their interdependence by intensifying cross-border movement of goods, services, technologies and capital.
Globalization was fully implemented only in the 1970s when governments began to emphasize the benefits of international trade, benefiting primarily from successive developments in technology and communications, thus transforming their economies from a centrally planned economy to a market economy as the internal reformations of the companies took part in more adoption quickly, and exploit the opportunities created by significant technological developments.
Globalization has encouraged multinational companies to organize the productive process to take advantage of opportunities, leading to increasing migrations of labor and capital into areas characterized by low labor costs.
Globalization sparked controversy in the late 1990s. Opinions differed about whether it was a global social phenomenon, a state, or a historical era linked to the locomotive of the new world order, and heralding a new form of economic relations between nations.
Economic globalization has grown at a high rate, as a result of the integration of developed economies with less developed economies through FDI and the reduction of trade barriers.
This was done through inter-State arrangements under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which took place in 1947 and developed into the World Trade Organization (WTO), which reduced trade barriers between them and imposed low tariffs, And curbs government support for locally manufactured goods.
Some economists believe that technological advances, communications and transportation, along with the establishment of a free market ideology, have given unprecedented freedom to move goods, services and capital across borders. The wealthy countries of the North want to open world markets to take advantage of cheap labor in the South. To achieve this, the wealthy countries used the International financial institutions and regional trade agreements to force poor countries to “integrate” into the global market by lowering tariffs, privatizing state-owned enterprises, and reducing environmental and labor standards, thereby maximizing their profits on the account of workers and their strength, causing, thus, strong reactions from civil societies.
Globalization aims to create a global market in which all obstacles and barriers are overcome. This helps to achieve the idea of the “end of history” promoted by Fukuyama, a Japanese-American citizen who believes that economic globalization is a harbinger of removing the national dress( abaya) and putting everyone in uniform.
It also leads the world by making it a small, cross-border village by reducing the shadow of the state and expanding the work of multinationals, production and financing networks where the global market forces can pass their agenda as an economic power which means the retreat of the role of states where a new institutions will undertake the management of the world economy and the rearrangement of human activity as a whole.
Anthropologist David Hide defines the globalization “The system of transformation in the network of economic, social and political relations, which in turn transforms the structural aspects of all aspects of life,” , and he sees that the manifestations of globalization are concentrated in several determinants including the communication revolution , Information Technology , transnational corporations, the International Trade Organization and the International Criminal Court.
The International Fund sees economic globalization as “the growing economic cooperation of the world’s nations, necessitated by the increasing volume of cross-border trade in goods and services as well as international capital and the rapid spread of technology throughout the world.”
While the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) attach great importance to globalization as a key and effective factor in the fight against poverty, because they see that the globalization and full and unrestricted financial and commercial liberalization are the best way to achieve economic growth and eradicate poverty, many question this view. especially in the West, because distribution of wealth is unequal that the poor classes in countries that have experienced periods of economic growth and progress do not enjoy much of the benefits of growth, while they pay the price in periods of decline and the evidence for that the difficulties the poor classes faced in the events which witnessed the collapse of the global financial system, especially in 1997 when the financial crisis broke out in South Asia, as globalization emerged as a new form of colonialism and the imposition of economic dependence on Third World countries through the perpetuation of poverty and inequality.
One of the most prominent features of economic globalization: the activation of economic freedom, the flow of information, the removal of obstacles to the movement of trade in goods and services and foreign investment, and the trend towards the establishment of international economic blocs in a global competitive market.
This has created a challenge for all countries, especially developing ones, to adopt new policies for economic development, adopt market mechanisms, strengthen government budget structures, improve the ability to attract domestic finance and external finance, support and reform economic management and legal systems, and the orientation towards the privatization of public institutions.
Certainly, today’s world is undergoing many changes in various economic, political and cultural aspects, moving from the age of traditional capitalism to the era of globalization characterized by open markets and free flow of resources.
These international changes that accompany the globalization of the economy have implications for the developing countries in general, and the Arab countries in particular, as a result of the clear development in the economic and trade policies of the developing countries that are distinguished in the direction of developing their economic capabilities through the liberalization of their national markets and opening them to trade and international investments. The number of countries which removed trade restrictions was increased from 35 countries to 135 countries during the period 1970-1998, and Tariffs in the world after World Trade Organization (WTO) dropped from 6.3 percent to 3.8 percent in industrialized countries, from 15.3 percent to 12 percent 3% in the Developing countries.
The developments in the three major industries: computer, communications and information technology have revolutionized the world, bringing the world together and bringing the markets closer and liberated it to the increase of global prosperity noting that the Global production has increased tenfold from $ 3 trillion to $ 30 trillion during the last years in addition of the average per capita income in the world doubled nearly two-and-a-half times, but the distribution of this welfare was not equal between the regions of the world and its countries. Developed countries achieved more successes than developing countries led to increase the disparities between the most advanced countries and the less developed ones.
Globalization has raised some problems, including: the rise of unemployment and the loss of employment opportunities, the intensification of competition and the intensification of the use of new technology, especially that new methods of production, sophisticated goods and modern forms of industrial regulation will lead to job reduction.
Globalization, through the policies of economic openness, the development of information technologies and advances in communication technology, will increase the phenomenon of poverty. As we have already explained, the industrial boom in developed countries has increased the disparities between them and the less developed countries as a result of the huge increase in the volume of cross-border financial flows and the movement of capital among countries and their migration to developed countries.
The clear danger in the concept of globalization towards Arab thought lies in its concentration around the west and its civilization where the experience of the past in Western-Eastern relations has shown that tendency of self-centeredness is what constitutes the western mentality. The past also refers to a depressing history of Western civilization towards the history and civilization of the East, The concept of globalization that the West is still on the “destructive” approach to other cultures and did not change the patterns of behavior towards the Eastern peoples, and clear calls have emerged in the West to the destruction of global culture, and the installation of Western civilization as one civilization and the only one of the world, And these different calls raise concerns of the Arab Thought towards globalization, and associated calls are not suitable for the establishment of an equal relationship between the West and the East, so the victory of Western civilization on the other civilizations, and the elimination of national and regional cultures and general subordination to the Western model culturally and economically.
The Arab world is puzzled towards the globalization. It is a global affair that leads to linking the country to a unified world order. Such a link, if not properly qualified, can become an absolute subordination to the Western system that controls globalization and the engine of the new world order. In fact, most Arab countries do not have the qualifications to enter the world of globalization, and because they are forced to enter, they are exposed to the loss of its economic freedom to become economically dependent States of the superpowers and unable to benefit from the new world order on an equal basis with Western countries so the globalization is no more the economic invasion of the world led by the West by a pure USA-, which means the victory of the American style to control the means of production, and work on the integration of the other in this Western –American economic style , which contain the world at the economic level leads to contain it culturally.
Here, we ask how the Arab States can face the negative effects of globalization.
This requires a fundamental development of the current Arab system based on a genuine, non-false commitment by the Arab states to develop new foundations based on solidarity and cooperation among them to achieve common interests and strive to overcome their immediate interests for the benefit of the entire Arab world. Experiences have proved many times that it is not difficult for the majority of States to agree on a common effort, work together, and provide funding to overcome a threat.
Making it more challenging and in keeping with the global developments imposed by globalization, safer, more prosperous, less need and violent, It establishes a solid ground for a system that balances the interests of all and ensures economic and political stability in all its rich and poor countries alike Arab countries must adopt a new approach based on better management to face the globalization, aimed at combating poverty, inequality and unemployment.
They should also open a dialogue between Arab civilization and other civilizations, especially the European scientific and technological civilization, and this dialogue, while preserving the cultural specificities of Arab civilization, not to devote the economic and technical dependence of the developed Western world and openness to modern science and technology to achieve integrated human development and at the same time, we maintain regional, local and Arab privacy, without being shut down. Globalization through modern liberal policies in which it relies on but to draw for us the image of the future by returning to the savage past of capitalism. So to pretend that the Globalization has led to the fusion of different national and regional economies into a unified global economy after the world became a single market ; this is not entirely true; national and regional economies will play a major role in countering the ever-increasing economic freedom and removing barriers to commodity and service trade and foreign investment in the light of a wide global competitive market.
Rawabet Center for Research and Strategic Studies