Skip to 0 minutes and 9 seconds Globalization is a process that shrinks time and space.
Skip to 0 minutes and 14 seconds It also splits the world into two: the West and the Rest, East and West, North and South. The latest step in the globalization process
Skip to 0 minutes and 23 seconds goes even further: it splits countries into supporters of change and its opponents. This sets it apart from the former waves of sudden acceleration and proliferation of trade and war. In the past, the majority of a population was either not affected by world affairs or simply ignored them. People are now confronted to countless changes in their everyday life. Some are welcome, like a better health care, or Internet connection. Some are not, like unemployment or increasing inequality. Above all, the states that made it all possible are now exposed to the undesirable and unexpected impact of a global vulnerability to world trends. Take the world news, every morning, at random,
Skip to 1 minute and 10 seconds during the past five years: nationalism has made a comeback with a touch of populism (nearly half of the electorate in France, Italy and the US voted for a populist party in 2016-2017). These voters refused to entrust the major stakeholders of the globalization process – international organizations, multinational corporations, and global finance. There are acute divisions within countries as different as Brazil, Venezuela, Austria, and Ukraine. And, of course, we are aware of people’s fatigue with extant arrangements such as the European Union, NATO, trade agreements, and even the G 20. Europe is the place where such movements are the most visible. This is where the temptation to leave has been put into practice.
Skip to 2 minutes and 1 second This is where GREXIT, BREXIT and even FREXIT were the major issues in overheated electoral campaigns in Greece, Britain, and France. Simultaneously, Donald Trump has promised to wall up the United States – but there is evidence that this desire to pull out from treatises and organizations is less Western than global.
Skip to 2 minutes and 27 seconds In Turkey, Russia, and Venezuela, nationalists fight hard to monopolize power and limit foreign influence on their political system. The main divide now opposes those who want to retrieve popular sovereignty and those who can trade it off for more welfare or more wealth.
Skip to 2 minutes and 45 seconds Or more rights: leaving international coalitions does not suffice; refusing standardization and uniformity matters even more. The people want to govern, against politicians, political parties, and world institutions. They want to move and settle wherever they like. They want justice and efficiency. This course tells the story of this titanic conflict between the elites and the people to rule the world and even their own country. Should they step out of the leading group of nations on their way to a more global world? Or should they stay with them? Leave or remain; globalize or perish; or, more simply, adapt or retreat.
