Good Example Of Critical Thinking On Global Studies Final

Question 1

Introduction
It is easy to agree with the Nye position countering that America’s global political power continues declining. The contention America’s global political power continues waning contains flawed assumptions connected to the definition of political/economic power as discussed in the following argument.

The Argument Clarified

It is clear how the example of China, for instance, may become the world’s future leading economy, nonetheless true power is not assured to those nations having the most possession of the most resources. Power such as that the United States still maintains in the 21st centuy exists through maintaining just the right balance necessary for the successful combination of assets for successful strategic posturing. In this regard, the US retains considerable clout in global politics Froman (111) and Inglehart & Welzel (33). The claim emphasizing the decline of the United States’ politically/economically falsely arises from assuming military power as political influence, in part leads to some believing this true because of America’s catastrophic failure to achieve desired ends in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Such a military failure of power has not transferred democracy’s political/economic supremacy from the US or from other democratic based emergent nations. The fact democracy continues experiencing growth but also, has far more retreats in places attempting establishing its roots in other countries exists because of underlying transnational political activities among the global community’s emergent socio-political and economic order facing far more complicated realities. This characteristic is exemplified in the diametrically different examples of Cuba and South Korea. Both these nations’ new power derives from participation in a regionalized a global power system manifested through the capitalist ventured global trade process for building an economic base supporting its political ideologies (Inglehart and Welzel 33).
Inglehart and Welzel argue while the US use of military power creating and supporting democracies in the past proved marginally successful such current attempts at transitions of emerging global nations to a democratic government shows as in both Iraq and Afghanistan disaterous leaving both nations’ poltiical realities in chaotic horror and brings to the forefront how setting up democracies worldwide remains provisional to social and cultural conditions set in place for such a shift (33).
According to Froman the growth in any country’s exports and foreign direct investment provide testament to its ability for acquisition of new power and a basis for its growth militarily. The 21st century looks to America’s continued positioning at the center of the global trading/power system by setting and enforcing trade agreeements, bolstering global marketing partnerships, and encouraging broad-based economic development (112). This is in complete contrast to countries such as India and China refusal taking responsibility in the new world order of capitalism prodding the global power structure by agreeing to proposed elimination of red tape in both customs and border disputes designed to assist emerging nations with economic acitivites provided by trade (113). Military, economic and political alliances/collaborations such as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU), North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) continue showing how trade between America these entities reach $1 trillion annually.

Conclusion

As positied in the introduction, contention America’s global political power continues waning contains flawed assumptions connected to the definition of political/economic power. As discussed above, this argument provided citations of experts as to why agreeing with Nye counters any perceived decline in U.S. power. This connected only to its pragmatic inability to police the world. America’s continued focus on socioeconomic development as a proactive measure alleviating its own problems arising from previously attempting to solve global issues through acts of armed engagement now no longer prods its interests as a continued power leader globally as discussed by the cited experts. Effectively, Washington remains an important power in the world in the context of how it collaboratively wields its ongoing social, political, and economic global standing working with the global community.

Question 2

Introduciton
Considerations
The initial Ebola disease response remained hampered by panic and misinformation (a consequence of lack of education, poverty, institutional weaknesses and communication technologies, etc.), including fatal attacks on medical teams by villagers and all directly attributed to the poverty stricken nation lacking stability and set infrastructures dealing with such an invasive and predominantly untreatable communicable disease. Poverty arising from inadequate national financial resources, poor capacity of the existing health systems, and leadership voids in these countries, made it difficulty deploying the necessary fast action in order to stem the disease.
The late intervention of the World Health Organization (WHO), foreign militaries, and non-governmental organizations required for turning the tide against the disease remained the initial reality the West Africans afflicted with Ebola experienced. The framework of the failure of the Ebola crisis receiving the medical expertise required in treating such a deadly disease with no known cure, lay in the failure of leadership response within the poverty stricken nations as well as those such as WHO responding in a timely manner (Gostin and Friedman 1323). Poverty stricken areas of the planet such as West Africa remain at the mercy of their economic conditions as they rely on the new world order sufficiently addressing such crisis as the Ebola outbreak that realistically posed a pandemic threat to the global community.
The implications of this economic condition where so many of the human population live in West Africa in a continued state of poverty brings the issue to the forefront with the Ebola crisis. As explained by Grostin and Friedman, both the fragmented and delayed response to the Ebola outbreak left a marked vacuum leading to requests for military intervention compounded by problems of logistics. The WHO recommendations for dealing with Ebola became a comedy of errors as the poverty of the affected nations proved they had no financial resources needed for a realistic means for implementing the treatments at the existing centers, compensating health workers, or purchasing the protective personal equipment (1323).
Only when nations including the U.S. realized the futility of containment within the West African nations economically handicapped in their poverty from doing so, and the reality of people leaving these stricken nations and arriving via commercial flights did further action occur. At this point in the crises, the true picture emerged showing at best the intervention with military presence including the U.S. in containing the population in the stricken nations was merely a means of putting a band aid on the situation and by no means enabled addressing the needed means for filling major ruling deficits in the poverty stricken nations experiencing the Ebola crisis. The UN remained the sole power for doing so and WHO exists today relying on a misguided confidence allowing it rapidly move the required funds to make a difference in the Ebola crisis. The ugly truth of poverty internationally proved a wake-up call for the global community with the Ebola crisis.

Conclusion

The introduction of this section theorized that Africa epitomized the evidence of failed socio-political, economic, and other areas exemplifying poverty with the lack of infrastructure capacities in this global region for immediately employing an effective front for staying the outbreak of Ebola recently experienced. The truth emerged how the leadership of the expressly designated role of WHO in economically filling the global needs in such crisis proved lacking and exacerbates the realty of poverty as a global issue concerning Ebola’s effect on the world.

Works Cited

Froman, Michael. "The Strategic Logic of Trade." Foreign Affairs 93 (2014): 111-18.
Global Poverty and Inequality. PS 0550: Introduction to Global Studies. 2015. Class Notes
Gostin, Lawrence, O and Eric, A Friedman. "Ebola: a crisis in global health leadership." The Lancet Vol 384 (2014): 1323-25. Web.
Inglehart, Ronald and Christian Welzel. "How Development Leads to Democracy: What We Know About Modernization." Foreign Affairs March/April Issue (2009): 33-48. Web.
Nye, Joseph. "The Future of American Power: Dominance and Decline in Perspective." Foreign Affairs Vol. 89, No. 6 (2010): 2-12. Print.