The overarching process defined as the increasing interconnectedness and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries.
The key pillar of globalization that describes the process by which once-isolated markets, firms, and nations combine into a unified, interdependent system.
Integration
The organized, political network of independent, sovereign countries that interact, compete, and cooperate on the world stage.
Global Interstate System
The major dimension of globalization involving cross-border trade, foreign direct investment (FDI), and global supply chains.
Economic Globalization
The perspective on globalization that views the nation-state as declining in power or becoming "outmoded," acting merely as a "transmission belt" for global capital.
Hyperglobalist View (or Market Triumphalism)
The perspective on globalization that vigorously defends the nation-state, arguing that true economic integration peaked in the late 19th century and that economic activity is concentrated in a "triad".
Skeptics
The middle-ground theoretical perspective asserting that globalization is a real and historically unprecedented force, but that state sovereignty is reconfigured across multi-layered scales
Transformationalist
The 1997 economic event caused by volatile speculative capital ("hot money") that exposed the vulnerabilities of unfettered Western globalization in Southeast Asia.
1997 Asian Financial Crisis
The major global economic indicator that evaluates development through metrics measuring life expectancy, education, and healthcare infrastructure.
Human Development Index (HDI)
The three core deficits of global governance identified in the course materials: Equality, Institutional, and_____
Understanding Deficit
The term describing the severe imbalance in power, wealth, representation, and freedom of movement between the Global North and the Global South.
Equality Deficit
The phenomenon where high-income nations enjoy visa-free global travel while citizens from developing nations face strict visa restrictions.
Mobility Divide
The specific deficit of global governance defined as the structural gap or "lag" between fast-moving economic globalization and the lack of enforceable supranational governing bodies
Institutional Deficit
The historical period between the 18th and 19th centuries that accelerated economic divergence by concentrating manufacturing, tech innovation, and capital in Western nations
Industrial Revolution
The geopolitical era (1947–1991) that divided Asia into ideological camps and drove non-aligned and pro-Western nations to form regional groupings for mutual security
Cold War (or Cold War Geopolitics)
The practice where wealthy core nations displace environmental degradation and toxic waste to peripheral developing nations, burdening lower-income communities with health costs.
Ecological Injustice
The cognitive gap and disconnect between distant global decision-makers (such as TNC headquarters) and local citizens experiencing immediate disruptions.
Understanding Deficit
The sociopolitical term describing how central corporate and financial functions in "global cities" connect into transnational networks while disconnecting from their surrounding domestic hinterlands.
Spatial Disconnect of Command Centers
The ethical foundation argument stating that affluent states accumulated immense wealth through historical colonial extraction and resource exploitation.
Historical Restitution
The statistical metric used to quantify income inequality within an economy.
Gini Coefficient
Scenario: Following a international economic crash, voters in a Southeast Asian country blame their regional governor for widespread unemployment. They demand local policy changes, entirely unaware that the plant closures were directed by a multinational board in London whose supply chains and subcontracting agreements are too opaque for the public to trace.
Opacity of Complex Global Networks
Scenario: A high-income nation freely permits foreign executives and wealthy investors to enter its borders with expedited visa processing. Meanwhile, asylum seekers and low-wage migrant workers from developing countries seeking legal employment pathways in the same nation face indefinite border detention and extreme visa restrictions.
The Mobility Divide
Scenario: An international treaty is signed to halt global deforestation, but several participant nations freely violate the environmental standards without facing legal sanctions because the agreement depends on voluntary compliance rather than a binding supranational enforcement mechanism.
Weak Enforcement
Scenario: A developing nation’s local news stations are dominated by major Western media conglomerates. As a result, domestic viewers receive extensive coverage of foreign cultural events and North American political debates, while local developmental issues and Global South perspectives receive almost no coverage.
One-Way Information and Media Flow
Scenario: A scholar analyzes global politics by studying non-governmental organizations (NGOs), multinational corporations, regional blocs like ASEAN, and transnational activist networks, rejecting the traditional view that sovereign states are the only meaningful actors in world affairs
Transformationalist View