Introduction to global politics

Introduction to global politics

Introduction

McDonalds in Moscow and Coke in China will do more to create a global culture than military colonisation could ever do. The quote by Benjamin Berber implies the powerful effect of globalisation on the geopolitical and cultural aspects of the global environment. In considering the above statement, this work will analyse the extent to which colonisation and imperialism contributed towards a global culture. The analysis is based on East Asian history and geopolitical context.

It will also consider the contribution of economics in the same respect, as well as the counter-currents tao the idea of globalisation. (www.bookrags.com) Prior to (and arguably some time into) the 20th century, direct military and political intervention was a popular vehicle that carried ideas, beliefs, and religions across national borders. The effect of this can be witnessed by considering any great empire of the past - the Egyptians, the Macedonians and the Persians, and the Romans just to name a few. It is common knowledge that these empires had great impact on local people under their occupation (Latin that came from the Romans became the basis of languages spoken by half of Europe today). More recently, during the first half of the 20th century the world was divided between European colonial powers who exercised imperialistic controls over their territories. Colonialism and imperialism go hand in hand together.

American Predominance

There are those who dismiss such fears, either believing them to be overstated or insisting that America's pre-eminence in mass culture will inevitably go the way of its dominance in other industries. According to the latter model, cultural power moves with financial and industrial power. When Holland was at its apogee, Dutch styles in home furnishings were imitated all over the world. But, this argument runs, when Holland declined, the world turned to other models. And, indeed, certain cultural prerogatives have always accompanied political or military dominance. It is clear from the history of arts patronage in Europe and, albeit to a lesser extent, in imperial China, that the most powerful courts attracted the most powerful artists, musicians, and producers of beautiful clothes and furnishings. (mtprof.msun.edu.)

Few countries that become powerful do not succeed (Germany is the obvious exception here) in imposing their national cuisines on the rest of the bourgeois world or influencing the course of high fashion.

One has only to remember that sushi bars, all but unheard of 25 years ago outside of Japan, have now proliferated not only in the major capitals of the world, from Moscow to Mexico City, but in the prosperous suburbs as well, or to note that the Germans have now produced one male and one female fashion designer of international repute, to realize that the rules of this particular game have not changed all that much since the days when fashions developed at the court of Philip II of Spain rapidly became the fashionable norm in all the European courts of the period. (www.washingtonpost.com)

But successfully imposing a taste for salmon-skin handrolls ...