Reflection for Week of August 25th

Let me start off this week’s post by asking a question. In class on Friday, the word privatization was brought up when referring to basic services. While in theory I don’t disagree with privatizing services, if the private company cannot provide the service isn’t it the local or perhaps the state governments’ responsibility to provide these services for their people? In theory, I agree with the privatization of services, because I don’t believe that the government should have a real far reach into the free enterprise sector. This question brings up the difficult question of how far reaching the government should be. I don’t have an answer to the question, but I just wanted to put it out there.

Relating to today’s class discussion about “What constitutes world politics?”, I wanted to reiterate my points. First off, I believe there is a certain threshold before an issue becomes world politics. That threshold, in my belief, must involve an issue that transcends (crosses), literally or figuratively, a state border. Second, even little things in one country, such as the inability to provide basic services can become a world politics issue. Let’s use an example from class, Palestine. The Palestinians elected the militant group Hamas, because the ruling party, Fata, couldn’t provide basic services such as electricity. The electing of a new government, in and of itself is not a world politics issue, but, because Hamas is hostile to the neighboring state of Israel it has world impact. So because Palestine is controlled by Hamas, it now has more opportunity to send missiles and suicide bombers into Israel, and there is nothing in their own country that would stop them. My third and final point is that I believe that any issue should be considered individually to see if it constitutes a world political issue, because almost anything can morph into a global political issue.

World Politics

Even though our environment is a sensitive issue there is one subject that is often ignored when discussing world politics. When you take into account that every nations' economies are expanding overseas you find that they are stretching too thin and pose the risk of falling apart. The local corporations like Walmart, Inbev and others are expanding their empire into other countries running other companies like Anhessar-Busch into the dirt. The other concern is that should a recession hit one country, the other will follow just like how the European Union did during the 2008 recession. It's useless to stop these monopolies from growing but the best thing is that they be mindful of the risks they are taking as they continue to reach out to foriegn countries.

Yet again, the most important issue of world politics...

Wow, I wrote my own blog response separately because of my computer problems and it's amazing to me how similar our answers to this difficult question are! Does it mean that since the three of us all blogged about similar things this issue of the environment really is the most important issue of world politics? Maybe, maybe not, but it definitely proves what a powerful influence the environment has on the youth of our country! Ok, here's my first blog entry... ever!

The Question: What is the most important issue of world politics today?

My Answer: It’s hard to believe that such an extreme question can be answered with any sort of authority or if it can even be answered at all. Since there are so many issues that the world faces and so many people who face different pressing issues, it rather boils down to one’s own personal opinion. For example the Palestinians and Israelis might say that hands down the most important issue is religion while those afflicted with AIDS in African countries might say that healthcare is the greatest concern while our fellow United States citizens scrounging for food might say poverty is the truly the most significant issue.
However, these concerns are mostly immediate rather than permanent. The most important issue of world politics today is simply the world… we need to take care of our world or else there will be no people to worry about these other problems because we as humans will cease to exist! And from this environmental problem comes the sub-issue of oil. Our generation has grown up in a society that is just obsessed with this magical, mysterious substance…and for good reason. People are dependent on oil for just about every function in modern life. Why is this? Because leaders of governments across the world are caught in these complex webs that involve alliances and enemies all based around purchasing and selling oil. Most decisions made by world leaders involve how the country will benefit from oil because it is so vital to the economy. From a poor economy, the before mentioned issues of poverty and inadequate healthcare and religious tension will intensify.
It is because of the worldwide dependency on oil that it is imperative to find new energy sources ASAP. The first priority, above any other problems that we humans face, is (or should be) to take care of the planet that we so often take for granted. Instead of battling with foreign countries about who gets what amount of oil or arguing within our own country about where drilling should take place, the focus needs to shift. Politicians, scientists, inventors, and anyone else with the capacity to think outside the oil tank need to come together and create new energy sources. The planet is the absolute most important issue that world politics could ever face and, unfortunately, it is the greatest issue that we are facing today.

Most Important Issue in World Politics

I believe that the most important issue in world politics at the moment is that of global warming. Well right now, there is not as strong a connection between global warming and world politics as there will be in the future if things continue as they are. Right now we see a group of industrialized countries talking about ways to reduce emissions that are leaking CFC, Chloro Floro Carbons, into the atmosphere in the hopes that they can agree to reduce the emissions and help stop global warming. So far there isn’t much success even at this level. If global warming is not controlled – if it even can be controlled - at its current rate there will certainly be global implications for the future. As global warming continues, the precious and necessary resources that are on this planet will start to diminish. This will most likely lead to countries fighting over the resources. Increasing global temperatures will cause farm land to disappear and worldwide famine will be the inevitable result causing countries to be at war. Also low lying countries and parts of countries will start to disappear because of rising sea levels. Refugees will be moving into countries and causing a strain on resources. And so on and so on. So, if global warming is not slowed or stopped, every person in the world will feel the effects both politically and environmentally.