Effect of Globalization on Relations between Western and Middle Eastern Countries

Introduction

Globalization is the creation and expansion of economic and social connections among people and organizations around the world. These processes can range across a wide variety of affairs, but all point to the internationalization of everyday life. While we could speak of purely political or cultural aspects of this “shrinking of the world,” the economic dimensions of globalization attract the greatest attention. Economic globalization centers on the material mechanisms connecting different countries, which then have political, cultural, and social consequences within and between states. This paper discusses how globalization is increasing strains on foreign relations between western and Middle Eastern countries.

Discussion

The process of globalization is fueled by the movement of people, goods, ideas, technology, and money across national boundaries. The populations of different cultures have interacted and established economic and cultural links for centuries. In the middle Ages, merchants and explorers exchanged goods and ideas throughout Europe, across North Africa, and between the Middle East and Asia. However, in recent decades, globalization has advanced at an increasingly rapid pace. Two major forces in this development have been the Internet, which has sped up communications, and businesses, which have expanded to reach markets on distant continents. (Scruton, 2002)

Although people still identify with their local communities and national governments, many increasingly see themselves as part of a global society. However, globalization does not affect all regions in the same way. Individuals and corporations in industrialized countries tend to benefit more than those in developing countries.

Globalization, Islam and Middle East

Hatred of Globalization may help explain what drove 19 young Arab men to turn four commercial airplanes into weapons that killed themselves and nearly 5,000 innocent people. But many experts suggest deeper motivations as well—from resentment of U.S. policies in the Middle East to the perception that the American way of life is so offensive to Islam that it must be destroyed. (Ahmed, 2008)

Still other observers say anti-globalization hatred has more to do with the haters than with America. "They hate us because they are a radical, utopian and totalitarian movement. Like all such movements, be it fascism or Marxism-Leninism or this one, we are anathema in every detail and the main obstacle to the achievement of their goals. In a philosophical and a strategic sense, we are their enemy. So they have declared war on us.

But anti-globalization sentiment is not limited to Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda terrorist network, who have been linked to the attacks. The initiation of U.S. and British military action in Afghanistan prompted anti-U.S. street demonstrations in the Islamic world from the West Bank to Indonesia. Many demonstrators waved pictures of bin Laden and burned American flags. Mothers called on their sons to join the holy war against the United States. Clearly, the roots of such widespread anger extend beyond the delusions of a fringe group of zealots. Bin Laden himself had cited several reasons for his group's longstanding jihad, or holy war, against ...