Global Trends and Global Governance

Which global issues have the most impact on our lives at the beginning of the 21st century? What's the relationship between developments in politics, ecology, the economy, security, and systems of global government? How do we as individuals address the problems that they raise in an increasingly globalised world? Global Trends and Global Governance is a practical guide that explains the key political, economic, ecological and social factors that shape the process of globalisation. Drawing on information from UN reports, the book is packed with useful facts and figures that elucidate these complex ideas. It includes analysis of the US economy and US foreign policy as part of a wider critique of UN unilateralism, revealing the need to establish more co-operative and inclusive forms of global politics.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745317502
• ISBN13: 9780745317502
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Japan and India

Japan is dealing with its labor shortage and the high cost of labor by going multinational. Companies found it cheaper to employ female labor in Thailand or Mexico to assemble electrical goods than to produce them in Japan. The location of assembly and manufacturing plants abroad assures access to key markets: Mexican factories give Japan free access to the American and Canadian markets, while automobile factories in England and Wales provide a European base for the EC market. Profits go to Toyota and Mitsubitishi. Japan's focus is making money. Japan's banking practices will clean up. Japan will continue to fund Asia development. Japan will prevent nuclear escalation by stabilizing North Korea financial aid. Japan has received 4 Nobel prizes for science in comparison to 140 wins by the US. "City in the sky" development will transform real estate upward. Japan imports most of its food. Food production in Japan is inefficient. There are many reasons for the inefficiency, such as, lack of incentives caused by subsidized wages for the farmers, lack of planning, and production/financial weakness as a result of nationalization philosophy which does not face the raw pressures of capitalism that reward or punish based on performance. Japan will reform political isolation statutes and open US agriculture imports. Japan will increase its domestic food production by creating year round food production by Greenhouse, new bio-agricultural seed strains, and privatizing food production. Japan will continue to invest in Agricultural resource in the US, Mexico, Brazil, and Canada. India per capita GNP is $311 verses $5,000 for China. This means India's total GNP is less than half of Italy's and China's and 1/6 to 1/7 of Japan's. What are the chances that India and China can escape present low levels of average income and continue to enjoy high rates of economic growth? If growth can be sustained at 5 percent over the next few decades than progress will be assured. India has a rapidly growing elder population. Average life expectancy is about 58 years for both male and female, a result of improved health care, diet, sanitation, and general standards of living. The Indian government has considerably less power to reach into the villages and cajole peasant families to limit their size. The desire to bear children and enhance family income remains strong. Fertility rates in India are 4.3. India population increases have been 16.8 million each year in the 1985-90 period. Agriculture accounts for 60 percent of India employment. Rice and wheat are the main agricultural outputs. The miracle rice variety gained much greater yields in irrigated semiarid areas of the northwest. "Overall, India food supplies have risen sharply over the past decades, and it normally has sufficient stocks in hand to meet drought and famine conditions." The signs are the green revolutions have been spent. The successes of Indian agriculture have not been uniform: no incentives to adopt