GLOBALIZATION TECHNOLOGY & SOCIAL CHANGE
Source: http://www.miltechmag.com/2015/09/mspo-2015-defence-and-innovation-for.html. Accessed 20171019
Can Globalization Cause War?
There are many interesting relationships that can be examined between war and globalization, one of those relationships that can be explored is whether globalization can create war. In a sense it seems kind of strange that something like globalization can create war because people coming together and learning/using things from other nations should create a sense of unity. It is kind of ironic that sharing ideas and cultural practices with other nations would create conflict. The problem comes when we look at things through an economical lens and realize that open trade markets between countries can severely put certain nations at an extreme disadvantage. There are two major factors that influence the economical prosperity of a country in a free market, one being its natural resources and the second being a huge industrial/technological advancement that the country has made in a timely fashion (one of the first to develop this technology).
Not every country has the luxury of having a marketable source of natural resources. A lot of natural resources are heavily used in the production of goods and without any natural resources a nation can lose a huge chunk of potential income. Advancements in industrial technology is also very ground breaking, countries who can achieve such advancements first or early have the upper hand in that market and can gain huge profits from it. This creates a great deal of tensions between nations, it is historically evident that countries have been influenced to conquer other countries in order to capitalize on their natural resources. A lot of countries become aggressive when they feel like they need to be able to compete, if they feel like they can successfully conquer a smaller country that has natural resource then they will be extremely tempted to go to war. A tricky part of this is that nations who were already in the free market can also create conflict by closing off and attempting to be self-sufficient. This type of move can create tension with countries who have a huge dependency on another nation's export.
There are more shocking facts that help cement the argument that globalization does indeed cause war. Statistics show that as globalization becomes more prominent, the economical gap between countries tends to widen instead of becoming more narrow. This means that poorer countries are becoming even more poor while wealthier countries are becoming richer. Third world countries are now experiencing a lot more civil wars where civilians are dying and not soldiers, and this is shown to be a result of increased globalization. Economic instability is one of the main reasons in which countries end up having civil wars. Civilians become overwhelmed with their government's inability to sustain or improve their nation's financial conditions and they are forced to rebel in attempts to find better ways of leading their nation to financial prosperity.
Researcher: Jansen