This working paper analyzes some of the most relevant problems and opportunities for Germany in the course of globalization and proposes various solutions and measures to cope with the new challenges.
Task: Write a working paper that identifies and briefly describes the most important problems, challenges, and opportunities for your country linked to globalizaiton.
Background
Globalization is a process integrating economic, cultural, technological as well as ecological developments and governance in the form of a growing interdependence among the world’s people. It has reached a different dimension in terms of speed and technological progress since World War II. Significantly new developments in infrastructure and communication technology after the End of the Cold War led to an even greater pace and scale of global interactions.
Issue
This working paper analyzes some of the most relevant problems and opportunities for our country in the course of globalization and proposes various solutions and measures to cope with the new challenges.
Problems and Challenges
Economy
Growing interdependence in terms of increasing market liberalization and technological progress cause dismissals of employees and even closures of businesses and business branches (see Siemens Mobile Phones). Often, whole sections are relocated to other countries, where production and labour costs are lower.
Financial interactions are by now so interlinked that we for sure are affected by the consequences of a financial crisis emanating from another (far-off) country. A fierce example was the Asian Financial Crises in 1997, starting from Thailand with the financial collapse of the Thai currency, which in turn led to a breakdown of stock markets with negative consequences for the national economy.
Politics
Loss of power. Technical and infrastructural progress in the economy result in greater flexibility, and thus in a diminishing importance of geographic territory. We can no longer regulate economic flows in and out of the country (as e.g. on the global capital market, money moves to where profit opportunities are highest). These facts in turn lead to a derogation of our possibilities to implement economic policy.
Moreover, bigger influence of non-state actors below and above the level of the state (like EU, city-regions) in political decision-making results in a decline of authority/sovereignty. Globalisation contributes to a partially fundamental change of national governance.
Environment
Through the processes of globalization environmental problems reached a global level. Global phenomena like the greenhouse effect don’t stop at a nation’s border, and therefore it is difficult to control e.g. the emissions of pollutants emanating from other countries.
Consequences are among others an increase of global average temperatures caused by the emission of a variety of greenhouse gases (primarily CO2), which may lead to a submergence of our coastal regions or devastating floods (in Dresden 2002).
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- Arbeit zitieren
- Natalie Züfle (Autor:in), 2008, The most important problems, challenges, and opportunities linked to globalizaiton , München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/180106
