Why bother about international news? Thomas Abraham 5 September 2011.

Why bother about international

news?Thomas Abraham

5 September 2011

Why bother about international news?

People have always needed to know what happens beyond their immediate environment

We live in a unique time in history

1. The world has never been as closely connected as it is today

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/09/18/science/earth/100000001737133/greenlands-unfrozen-future.html

Copyright Brendan Bannon

Whether it is terrorism, war, disease, climate change, events in any part of the world have an impact on us

We live in a unique time in history

For the first time in several hundred years, the global political and economic system is dominated by a single nation.

Indicators of US power

Defence-The US Defence budget for Fiscal Year

2012 is US$ 737 billion -Does not include all security spending.

Economic Power

The US economy (GDP US$ 15 trillion) is more than two times the size of the world’s second largest economy China (US $ 7.2 trillion)

Table: Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita

If Bill Gates was a country, where would be rank?

Technological power

Cultural power

We lived in an American century

But will it last for ever? We live in a time of transition

A walk through history

Pre-World War 1: The Age of Empires Dominated by Britain, France, Russia

and the Austro-Hungarian empire, who maintained peace through a balance of power. Divided up most of Asia and Africa among themselves.

Why did it break down?

A world system is stable as long as all the major powers are satisfied with it. If there is a rising power that is not satisfied, system will become unstable.

The pre WW1 balance was upset by the growth of Germany as a new power after its reunification by Bismarck in 1871.The system could not accommodate the ambitions of a rising Germany.

What could change the current world order?

Other rising nations and groups of nations:

-China-Japan-India-The European Union

The European Union

A grouping of 27 countries with a common internal market, common currency and closely coordinated economic policies-

Taken together, the largest economy in the world

In terms of population, fourth largest entity.

Map: Wikipedia

The European Union The EU aims to have a common foreign

and security policy, but as events in Libya have shown, the EU is unable to take decisive military action.

Big question for the EU’s future role in global politics: can it develop a common foreign policy, and take independent military action ?

Japan

Despite the problems of the last decade, still the world’s third largest economy

Once its economic restructuring is complete, there is no reason why Japan can not enjoy another long spurt of growth as it did from the 1960s to 1990.

Japan’s constitution limits the size of its armed forces: but there is a debate on whether this should be revised

Japan has the technology to very rapidly become a nuclear weapons power

China

China has overtaken Japan to become the world’s second largest economy

Already a nuclear weapons power Problems that need to be overcome: reform

of financial structure, unemployment, corruption

Per capita income still low Aging population due to one child policy Can growth and modernisation proceed

without political reform?

India

At present, 11 th largest economy in the world. If it continues to grow at the current 6-7 percent a year, by 2030 it would have overtaken Japan

Large population. Good technical manpower

Nuclear weaponry as well as large armed forces

Problems: poverty social inequalities, social tensions, governmental inefficiencies

The next few years

We have seen the balance of global economic power will shift towards Asia, powered by China, Japan and India.

As the European Union expands and consolidates, it might become a significant player

The rise of a multi-polar world? How will the US react to this?

The subjects of international news are changing

Traditionally, international news has occupied itself with war, disasters, crises, and diplomacy.

The new 21st agenda for international news, is much broader and more exciting

It will be driven not so much by the formal relations between nations, but the consequences of globalisation.

Environmental wear and tear:-climate change-global water shortages-food shortages -preserving and protecting natural

resources

Global inequality-global trade and inequality-consequences of growing inequalities

between nations and regions

Poisoned fruits of globalisation-drug smuggling-human trafficking-international arms trade

The website

http://jmsc.hku.hk/courses/jmsc0042fall2012/

Things to do before next class( and through the course)

Listen/watch a world news newscast every day so you know what the top global stories are

Sign up for e mail alerts from Council on Foreign Relations , Reuters, BBC and Google

Familiarize yourself with the news sources and news sites on the class web site.

Read Moises Naim article

Course work

1. For my section: two short news stories ( around 400-500 words long)

2. A news analysis of how an issue is being reported in the media ( 750 words)

3. Twitter- you will learn to follow news by tweeting news of international developments to our course web sites