Global governance
Introduction
Global governance is a movement towards political cooperation among transnational actors, and its main aim is responding to problems that influence more than one state or region, and this promotes a world view of globalization (Voegtlin and Pless,2014). Globalization provided the basis for capitalism and the creation of a transnational state. It was proved that political reorganization for the word capitalism had lagged, unlike the economic restructuring (Robinson, 2018). It has helped withdraw national boundaries that existed from time immemorial and made it structurally impossible for individual nations to sustain their independence, and this called for countries to be interdependent of each other. Global governance has been employed in various sectors like in economics, socio-cultural, and political fields. Several institutions of global governance are used and include, United Nations, The World Bank, International Criminal Court, among others.
Discussion
Global governance is essential since it provides public goods like peace, security, among others. Various international relations(I.R.) theories have been of great importance in achieving the aims of global governance. International relations involve ideas that explain how international systems work and are usually supported by substantial evidence. Most theories are based on the national interest of a given state. The International approaches include;
Realism
This theory explains that countries only work to increase their power relative to that of other nations and claims that the most and reliable form of control is military power (Krahmann, 2005). It also explains that there is no power that can punish bad behavior and that moral behavior is dangerous since it can interfere with the ability of the state to protect itself. This theory was used by politicians a long time ago, especially during the Cold War, where neither the United States nor the Soviet Union decided to use allies to guard themselves as well as increase their political influence.
Liberalism
This is another theory that was developed since realism was viewed outdated. Due to the rise in globalization, improvement in communication technology, and the increase in trade influenced the state to adopt another way of deciding matters since the simple power politics could not be useful (Hurrell, 2006). This theory claimed that a powerful military was not the only power and instead also recognized economic and social power and proved that economic power was more beneficial than the military. For example, The United States has always had disagreements with European and Asian allies cannot impost its military superiority on any of its allies since it depends on the economy to accomplish its policy objectives.
Idealism
This theory stresses majorly on the importance of states to engage in moral goals and react ethically. It emphasized that dishonesty and violence should be avoided. For instance, Woodrow Wilson promoted democracy and nation self-determination through the theory of idealism (Weiss, 2011). Through this, the League of Nations was created, which is an international organization aimed at defending the weak from the strong. Constructivists are yet another theory of global governance. It claims that aspects of international relations are historically and socially constructed rather than the unavoidable impacts of human nature in the political world. It is categorized into three major groups, namely, Cognitive, social, and Radical constructivism. Social constructivism involves concepts made by Society, for example, in the philosophy of science. Cognitive constructivism explains that individuals cannot be provided with information in which they immediately understand and use, but instead, learners must come up with their own knowledge through experience. Neo-Marxism theory deals with more of the economic aspect and explains that global governance is made up of both political and economic institutions that put pressure on less developed countries. This theory was founded by Karl Marx, who claimed that socialist revolutions are most likely to happen in developed capitalist countries.
Political institutions have been used in promoting a global system of governance. These institutions include the United Nations, World Bank, International Criminal Court, among others. These institutions play key roles in ensuring effective global governance (Wouters and Odermatt, 2014) For instance; United Nations is an organization that was formed after the Second World War in 1945 by 51 countries to promote and ensure international peace and security, promotion of social progress and ensuring better living standards and ensuring that human rights are protected. It is also important in dealing with major issues of economic governance. World Bank is another political institution that helps promote global governance that works for hand in hand with the International Monetary Fund (Scholte, 2002). It helps member states develop by facilitating their capital investment, promoting foreign private investments, and also promotes long-range balanced growth of trade. These two institutions were created after the collapse of communism that led to the establishment of capitalism. World Bank plays a role in reducing poverty levels among the developing countries and providing financial infrastructure for growing countries (Frank and Mayer, 1998). It also acts as a source of financial and assistance for any formed government.
International Criminal Court plays key roles in promoting global governance. This institution was basically founded to help put an end serious crimes, of concern to the international community, and thus put measures to prevent the occurrence of such crimes in the future. It focuses on the crimes against humanity like murder, enslavement, sexual violence, among others, and anyone that violates them is held in the ICC’s detention center, which is commonly known as Hague. It was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal aimed at prosecuting people for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity (Spees, 2003). World Trade Organization is key in promoting global governance. It helps point on the success of the World Trade Organization and helps reduce barriers that occur in trade and conduct trade as per the agreed rules of trade. This organization helps handle trade disputes among members and also provides technical assistance that involves training for developing countries, thus ensuring cooperation with other international organizations.
Methodological approaches to political, scientific publications have been implemented to help analyze the upcoming effects of global governance. Methodology nationalism categories integral human knowledge into domestic and international affairs. It emphasizes on the concept of self- sufficiency and also emphasized the superiority of individual values. The globalism method is another methodological approach. This mainly emphasizes on human knowledge and also national sovereignty that involves the impacts of universal values (Lenssen et al., 2008). This method provides important guidance for global governance. The interdisciplinary approach of global governance comprises of disciplinary knowledge of economics, among others which contain, interdisciplinary aspect of; Global political economy, global politics, and global ethics. These methodologies help in the proper understanding of the changes in global governance and help keep individuals updated.
Relevant disciplines by literature and theoretical position have been employed to help explore global governance. Governance theory offers valuable and challenging aspects to the understanding of our socio-economic world. Cross- disciplinarity has been used to combine different disciplines so as to promote growth in global governance. The combination of these disciplines helps us know more about a certain discipline that if it was left to be independent, we wouldn’t have much knowledge about it.
Conclusion
Global governance is important in economic, social, and even political field. From a political point of view, it is of great importance since no single nation has got all resources to handle problems evolving around humanity like climate change, diseases, disaster risk, terrorism, or even organized crimes. The presence of global governance offers support to any member state affected by any calamity and thus quick stabilization. It also led to the growth of the political power of various countries. Through the International Monetary Fund, different countries have benefited from it and have enabled the growth of infrastructure, agriculture, health sector, among others. Implementation of global governance has brought so many beneficial changes, and each and every country should engage itself with global governance for the goodness of its progress. Methodological approaches should be kept into consideration in order to monitor the changes in global governance. Various theories of global governance should be put into use when running the affairs of member states and the idea of inclusivity, which never be neglected in the provision of any solution.
References
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