World Civilizations 2 Essay Samples

Introduction

Global interdependence is the mutual dependence of countries at a global level. Almost every country in the world needs something from another country, and that dependence on another country eventually creates global interdependence. According to David Bell (2009), for many years, the world is increasingly becoming dependent in many ways; economically, socially, and environmentally. It is observed that economy is the major concern of almost every country in the world, thus making the officials of those country focuses on improving it, like importing and exporting of goods and services which became one of the primary contributors of global interdependence (McKay et al., 2008). A good example of this is oil, which is a primary commodity of many countries. Oil is highly in demand, that it created a global interdependence between the countries that import it and those that produce the said commodity.

Causes of Global Interdependence

Countries around the world have a lot of need that they cannot support by their own. The lack of resources is the primary cause of global interdependence. Many countries import a lot of goods and services from other countries because they lack the resources and the capability of supplying or manufacturing specific goods. Trade became closely linked to the economy of every country in the world. Every change in the economy of one country affects another country, and sometimes this change may lead to devastating results. One of the most important goods that affect a lot of country’s economy is oil. Being one of the primary commodities in industrialized countries that are being primarily used in transportation and the production of electric power, oil can have a lot of impact to a nation’s economy.
Another factor that causes global interdependence is the numerous problems in the environment. According to David Bell (2009), most of the early problems in the environment are essentially local in nature. Those are the problems that affect only the towns, cities or provinces of a country. An example of this is the pollution of a lake which is caused by a certain factory. But as of the present time, most of the environmental problems we are facing are global in nature like global warming or the depletion of the ozone layer. These events triggered the will of the countries to help each other. The countries have become environmentally interdependent with each other to help save and protect the environment without affecting the economies of the developing nations.
The widespread need for employment opportunities, market access and investments has also caused global interdependence. In the form of social interdependence, many corporations, organizations and educational institutions have been operating on a multinational level. These global integrations have a lot of cultural factors like the widespread showing of Hollywood films. Through films, a lot of countries a lot the world have become globally interdependent to other countries.

Benefits of Global Interdependence

One of the major benefits of global interdependence is on emergency management. We have experienced that through time; disasters have been increasing and becoming more devastating. Through global interdependence, countries that are experiencing these disasters would have a lot of resources to spend on emergency management which include infrastructures, services and technologies that will increase the capacity of the country to respond to the said disasters (Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, 2011).
Another major benefit of interdependence is the access to a lot of new innovations and technological development in the international markets. An example of this is the access to a lot of medicinal drugs, while other countries have the lack in the capacity to produce and experiment new medicine to a lot of diseases, other countries which have a well-developed scientific and medical facilities. There is also a lot of benefit from the inward investment of foreign companies which bring wealth to the economy (Davis, 2014). Even though the profit of these foreign companies belong to another country, the investment, wages, required infrastructure, and other supporting industries all benefit the country being invested in.
There is also a benefit on the environmental factors. Many countries around the world are making ways on controlling the rapid degradation of the environment. Through interdependence, they were able to gather substantial data from many countries to predict or have accurate news on the disasters that may come.

Disadvantages of Global Interdependence

Even though the benefits of interdependence are very visible, there are also drawbacks to it. One of the major disadvantages of global interdependence is the economic fluctuations. Once a country in dependent to another country, let’s say in a certain product like oil, when the producing countries increases the oil prices to benefit their own economy, those industrialized countries that depend on that oil will experience inflation. A lot of products in those countries will also experience an increase in the prices which will then be a lot of burden to the people of the importing country. The economy of dependent countries will experience a lot of destabilization trends (Dervis, 2012). Cultural factors will also be affected. The interdependence to other countries will disrupt the traditions of the nation. Being dependent to other countries will cause integrations in the culture of the country and this will change how one progresses.

References:

Bell, D. (2009). Introduction to Sustainable Development. Ontario: EOLSS Publishers Co Ltd .
Davis, I. (2014). The Pros And Cons of Globalization. In This Together.
Dervis, K. (2012). World Economy: Convergence, Interdependence, and Divergence. International Monetary Fund.
Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2011). Global Interdependencies. Strategic Foresight Initiative.
McKay, J., Hill, B., Ebrey, P., & Beck, R. (2008). History of World Societies. Bedford/St. Martin's.