Global Inequality

Global Inequality ● Levels of inequality in Wealth (GDP/capita income), standards of living, and access to basic human needs: ○ i.e. food, water, healthcare, shelter, sanitation, etc. ● Stark divide between developed nations and less developed or developing nations that shapes global politics ● Basic Human Needs: ○ Water: 1 in 5 lack access to clean water with rural areas having the most severely limited access ○ Sanitation: 40% lack access to basic sanitation causing contamination and disease ■ Increase with TB, Cholera, Malaria, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 ○ Shelter: 1 in 5 lack access to adequate housing or are homeless ■ Leads to issues of a lack with healthcare and medical professionals ● HIV/AIDS ○ AIDS has killed more than 32 million people with an estimated 38 million currently living with HIV ○ Annual deaths have been reduced significantly since the peak in 2004 (1.7 million annual deaths per year) ● Global Hunger ○ 1 in 8 lack access to adequate food, calories, proteins, and vitamins lead to malnutrition, undernourishment, and starvation ○ Increases susceptibility to disease and other health risks ■ 1 in 4 children in the global south suffer from malnutrition ■ Leading to 1 death every 6 seconds in the global south ○ Global hunger isn’t due to a lack of food resources but gross inequalities in food distribution ■ Starvation in the south vs. obesity epidemic in the north ○ There is enough food, it is not evenly distributed globally ● “The Bottom Billion” ○ Overlap among lack of access to these categories among the bottom billion traps them in cycles of endemic poverty ○ Effects tend to reinforce and magnify one another ■ Poverty, hunger, healthcare, water, disease ■ 1 in 7 in the world are dealing with all of these compounding issues at once Inequality Theory ● Most International Relations perspectives tend towards a zero-sum view that focuses on how the Global North has (and continues to) benefitted at the expense of the Global South ● Inequitable gains from global capitalism, economic integration, international debt, and legacies of colonialism/imperialism ○ Debts from the WMF when developing countries take funds with substantial interest rates designed to keep them in poverty ● World Systems Theory ○ Adaptation of Marxist Theory that view inequality as a global class struggle between regions ■ Core, periphery, semi-periphery ○ Inequalities in the flow of goods, services, and wealth under self-replicating and exploitative capitalist world economy ● Dependency Theory ○ Developing countries are forced to borrow international capital for development (debt) and/or rely on unskilled labour and cheap natural resources vs. sustainable long-term economic development ○ Leads to dependency on the North and ensures continued exploitation, dominance, and unequal relations ■ Allows the Global North to continue to dominate and exploit ● Neocolonialism ○ Dependency and post-colonial states entering the free market economy allows for continued colonial exploitation and dominance ○ “Enclave Economies” ■ And resource extraction/cheap labour to benefit state and Multinational Corporations vs. sustainable local development ○ Free Trade: puts developing states at a major disadvantage and maintains inequality Global Environment ● Archetypal collective goods problem in International Relations ○ Benefits and impacts all ● Transnational shared issue that requires international coordinated governance of many state actors to address ● But, short term costs and interests (free riding) vs. cooperation and vital mutual gains/benefits ● Environmental Regimes: ○ Development of rules, norms, treaties, and institutions to govern international environmental issues ○ 1972 United Nations Stockholm Conference on Human Environment to raise global awareness ○ UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) to provide a discussion forum and monitor states ○ Rise of environmentally focused transnational advocacy networks of NGOs like Greenpeace ● Sustainable Development ○ Economic growth and benefit that doesn’t deplete resources, threaten biodiversity, or damage ecosystems, or destroy the future basis of development ○ 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development ■ Establish UN Commission and global forum to create and monitor sustainable development policies of states ■ Lacks powers of enforcement or sanction beyond publicity of noncompliant states ● Voluntary action required ● Depletion of the Ozone ○ Hole in the ozone layer allowed harmful ultraviolet rays to reach the earth’s surface ○ Caused by pollutants and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) Montrael Protocol ○ Unprecedented international cooperation and strong regime formed to reduce these CFCs ○ Treaty lading to the phasing out of CFCs by 2012 ○ Largely successful → effective burden sharing ● Climate Change ○ Long-term rise in overall work temperature linked to carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere ○ Threatens biodiversity and natural ecosystems ○ Polar ice melting will lead to flooding of islands and coastal areas ○ Weather pattern disruptions and rising natural disasters ● Climate Change Policy ○ Fairly weak international regime to address climate change ○ Kyoto Protocol (2001/2005): ■ Set formula for states to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2012 ■ Wide adoption (not US) but non-binding and weak enforcement meant states didn’t meet their goals ○ Paris Agreement (2015): ■ Limit warming to a 2 degree and zero greenhouse emissions by 2050-ish ■ Wide adoption (not US) and voluntary enforcement ● Future Challenges ○ Environmental stresses compounded by a massive growth in global population (especially in developing nations) ■ 7.5 billion on the planet today, most in underdeveloped areas ○ Estimate by 2050 the global population will be from 8-9 billion with developing nations set to triple ○ Major source of industrialisation, pollution, resource demands International Trade & its Theories ● Flow of global trade that reaches across international borders ($20 trillion/year) ● Collective goods problem: ○ Trade is mutually beneficial for all states but takes place under a system of anarchy and competing self-interested states ● Influenced by repeated interactions/reciprocity, global governance, and power politics ● Theories: ○ Mercantilism (a realist approach): ■ Trade should promote self-interest of states as tied to power capabilities, national well-being, and national security ■ Emphasis on relative power and zero-sum relative gains for states through trade ■ downplay role of international institutions in trade (it's primarily for the state’s own benefit and power) ■ Higher value on state exports (trade going to other countries) relative to imports (trade coming from other countries) ● Positive: Trade Surplus ● Negative: Trade Deficit ○ Protectionism: ■ Use state power to manipulate international trade by promoting and protecting domestic industries from competition (US) ■ Help to gain a greater advantage with positive balance of trade and economic power ■ Protects industries related to nation security (i.e. energy, agriculture, aircraft, etc.) ■ Tariffs: duty or tax on imported goods ■ Quotas: limiting number of goods for import ■ Subsides/Loans: government funding for incentive for industries to lower prices and aid development ■ Economic Nationalism: appeal to consumers to buy local (made in USA) (buy local goods) ○ Economic Liberalism (rejects Mercantilism): ■ Emphasis on mutual gains/benefits by participating in international trade ■ Focus on absolute gains and views trade as non-zero-sum that can result in mutual benefit via unrestricted free-trade between states (NAFTO) ■ Key role of international institutions is to help states coordinate and cooperate to achieve long-term interests and mutual benefits ■ Free Trade: best way to structure international trade and provide optimal mutual benefit ■ Free Market Competition: sets market price of goods via the supply and demand curve to reach equilibrium price ■ Rejects protectionism to lower trade barriers ● Free Trade Advantages ○ To maximise overall wealth, states should specialize in developing goods with a high comparative advantage vs. other states ○ Key to maximizing mutual benefit and efficiency from free trade ■ States produce goods with high comparative advantage and trade for others ● Free Trade Criticism ○ Comparative advantages may increase efficiency of global trade and mutual benefit for states, but: ■ Outsourcing of jobs depressed local wages ■ Poor working conditions in developing/oppressed countries ■ Environmental concerns with production and outsourcing Global Development ● Global Economic Development ○ Combination of capital accumulation, rising per capita incomes, increasing skills, new technologies, and related social and economic development ■ If a country is becoming wealthy, hopefully its citizens are too ○ Developing nations are the engine of economic growth but development in unequal ● Newly Industrialised Countries ○ States that have achieved large-scale economic growth and self-sustaining capital in recent years with wealth spread across society ○ Each carves out a specialised niche in the global market (like technology) ○ Led by East Asian “Four Tigers”: ■ South Korea ■ Taiwan ■ Singapore ■ Hong Kong ● China ○ Exponential economic growth since the 1990s and is now the 2nd largest economy in the world ■ Population of 1.4 billion people helps ○ Adoption of capitalist free market economic principles despite Chinese Communist Party ○ Major increase in foreign investment by MNCs in China ($1 trillion+) ○ Now eh major developer of the Global South (i.e. in Latin America) ● India ○ Other major area of economic growth since the 1990s and is now the 6th largest economy in the world ■ 1.3 billion population (supposed to pass China in the next decade) ○ Democratic socialist state which began to embrace free market politics with help from the World Trade Organization ○ Comparative advantage in service and information sectors and a target of outsourcing ○ 60% of GDP is from information and technology centers ■ i.e. tech support ● Development Trends: ○ Embracing trade liberalisation and free trade policies are linked to rapid growth ○ Shift to export-led growth by finding a specialized niche market for comparative advantage ○ Shift from raw resources to services, information, technology, and manufactured goods ○ Leads to wealth inequality, human rights violations, and government corruption Foreign Aid ● Foreign Assistance ○ Direct fund given by donors to developing states (recipients) to speed economic development, meet humanitarian needs, and even to advance political agendas ○ Can be private (i.e. private organizations, donors, charities) ■ Bilateral → state to state ■ Multilateral → international agencies ○ States are the largest donors ($150 billion/year) ● Bilateral Aid ○ Is the largest single source of aid; revolving around state-to-state transfers: ■ Grants: direct gifts of funds to use towards a chosen purpose or issue ■ Credits: grants given to buy specific goods back from the donor state ■ Loans: funding that must be repaid but often have high concessionary terms/repayment schedule ■ Military Aid: money given to strengthen armies or military technologies ● Multilateral Aid ○ Aid provided indirectly through international organizations, institutions, or agencies ○ United Nations is the largest provided based on voluntary contributions by member states ■ Purely humanitarian or providing for basic human needs ■ Doesn’t carry the same pressures as state-to-state funds ○ Wide range of projects focused on meeting basic human needs and development assistance ○ Benefits from the perception of legitimacy, neutrality, and global focus ● Why? (a realist question) ○ Why do we see a willingness among developed nations to provide aid to developing nations? ■ To advance political aims and influence by other means ■ With the Power principle: ● For mutual benefit to help develop emerging markets, stabilize states, and prevent insecurity ■ With the Reciprocity principle: ● Emerging norm of international assistance as the right thing to do ■ With the Identity principle: ● Maybe it is just the right thing to do ● If you have the ability to help others, help