Global Cooperation

Challenges and Opportunities in the Twenty-First Century

Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel, Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351933551
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politik & Internationale Beziehungen
• Subtopic: Internationale Beziehungen

The twenty-first century global community is confronted with unprecedented challenges as well as unique opportunities. The degree to which it can establish and institutionalize norms and mechanisms designed to promote and sustain meaningful global cooperation will determine the future course of civilization. This volume brings together a broad range of scholars to highlight some of the areas of contemporary transnational cooperation and to examine the scope and levels at which cooperation can and does take place. The study examines the issue of weapons of mass destruction, explores the promises of biotechnology and space technology, and investigates the roles of global conventions and institutions as strategies for addressing the common threats facing the international system. In short, the volume raises important, timely issues regarding the challenges and opportunities confronting the global community which both policy makers and academicians will find informative and thought-provoking in their efforts to understand the nature and complexity of the twenty-first century global community.

Chapter 1

Challenges of a Transnational World: Imperatives for Cooperation

Sai Felicia Krishna-Hensel

Introduction

The primary challenge facing the contemporary international system is the need to construct an effective policy framework to deal with the increasingly large number of transnational problems. Many issues that were historically confined to nations and regions have progressively acquired a global character. As nations confront the challenge of developing policies from a global perspective, there is increasing pressure to engage in multilateral consultation This is evidenced by the growth in the number of international organizations and institutions engaged in dealing with transnational issues. This chapter argues that as the process of globalization continues to shrink the planet and interconnectedness results in a greater proliferation of issues that have a global impact, the direction of national policy will increasingly have to incorporate a shift towards cooperative international strategy. The existing structures of cooperation are often incapable of promptly addressing the new realities facing the global community and over time it will become progressively more necessary to assemble new institutional structures and devise innovative solutions. Hence, there is a sense of urgency associated with the imperative for global cooperation.

Advances in information technology and a wider availability of data flows have enabled us to see the importance of cooperation as humankind faces challenges that pertain to the survival of the entire planet rather than specific groups or civilizations as has been the case in previous centuries.¹ These challenges can be grouped according to the possible impact on living beings and their environment, although itmay be difficult to establish clear boundaries in all instances. The challenges fall into a couple of categories, those with an immediate impact and those that pose long term risks. Recognizing that these distinctions may be hard to sustain and that there is overlap in many instances, the following categories are posited as a basic framework to enable us to examine each issue at some length. The basic problem categories, such as poverty, education, and human rights, represent challenges to global principles, although they are primarily manifest at the national and regional level. Environmental challenges on the other hand may have local roots but expand to the level of a global transformational process, such as climate change, atmospheric pollution or scarcity of water. Finally, warfare and conflict, technological development, terrorism, and disease pandemics represent the transnational threats that require an immediate global response. These instances, serve to demonstrate the increasing need to incorporate a global perspective into the decision making process.

The range and diversity of international efforts to manage the new global environment, and some possible directions for cooperative policy making and implementation becomes apparent through an assessment of some of the principal challenges, areas of confrontation and cooperation. The difficulties confronting the policymaking community as it seriously considers the looming specter of substantive inroads into state sovereignty forms the background of this discussion. In the absence of a common understanding of the magnitude of many of the global problems due to differences in cultural attitudes and values much of the effort is concentrated on debate and discussion of the problems.

The first objective of this chapter is to delineate the interrelationships that run through communications technology, terrorism and conflict, disease pandemics and human rights in an effort to focus on the dual role of the growth and spread of information in the interconnected world. The second focus of this chapter is on highlighting the challenges posed by the changing demographics of the global population, such as migration, environmental degradation and pollution. The discussion centers on the magnitude of these problem areas and the challenges facing the existing cooperative frameworks that are in place at this time. Finally, the chapter examines cooperative structures and global actors, and suggests that a preventative policy structure may be the answer to many of the dilemmas facing the global policy community.

Technology and the Global Community

The dramatic changes brought about by technological advances have contributed to many of the problems confronting humankind in the twenty-first century. Much of the speed of globalization has been driven by the new ICT (International Communications Technology) developments and the related progress in computer chip capabilities.² While promoting a vastly more interconnected and interdependent world, communications technology has also exposed the absence of an integrated global culture. The promise of globalization has not resulted in the formation of a truly global community. There is little disagreement that as the world converges, it simultaneously highlights the growing alienation and inequality between regions and cultures. Much of this is a condition that predates the information revolution, however, the forces of globalization appear to be in some measure, a contributing factor. An unfortunate by product of the interconnected world has been the widening cultural tensions that are fuelling much of the terrorism and conflict of the contemporary international system. The consequence has been that our attentions have been focused less on the promise of the new technological progress and more on the confrontational aspects of a perceived “clash of civilizations”.³ On the positive side, the interconnected world has demonstrated the enormous potential of global cooperation beyond the economic realm. Cooperation towards ensuring free access to information, whether it is educational, health related, or environmental knowledge can only facilitate the establishment of a truly global society. The challenges of an interconnected world encompass security issues, global pandemics, and environmental degradation to name just a few of areas of concern, but the promise of the interconnected world is that it may result in more cooperative approaches towards dealing with these challenges.

A wide range of technologies have provided the tools for simultaneously containing security threats and for monitoring environmental degradation, however, ICT technology has been in the forefront of the capacity to disperse information speedily through the global networks. This has been a tremendous help in mobilizing aid and coordinating a global response in cases of natural disasters and health crises. The magnitude of the Asian Tsunami of 2004 was conveyed to the global population through swift communications technology and this technology was also used to coordinate a global response to the event. The SARS outbreak and global health crises, such as the Bird Flu of 2003-2004, were also publicized through the internet and information on the progress, prevention, and management of the disease was greatly aided by the new medium. Web pages of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) received over 12 million hits in April 2003, during the height of the SARS outbreak. During February and March 2004, when the Bird Flu reports were circulating, the site reported over 80,000 hits per month⁴ While this data does not in itself give the whole picture, it goes a long way towards establishing the important role played by the information highway in dealing with global health concerns. Eventually, it promises to provide the channels for ensuring sustainable development.

Web based information can be an effective mechanism for mobilizing public participation in global governance and cooperation by eliciting an organized and informed response to a wide range of issues, as well as providing the means for instant feedback. It is also a cost effective tool. NPRI, (National Pollutant Release Inventory) the site set up in Canada as a source of information for communitiesthat are affected by and concerned about pollution output, has been an innovative initiative. Its success is attested to by the site visit data gathered within its first two days of existence, when over three million site visitors logged in to the web.⁵ The involvement of individuals and civil society in the policy formulation process is a relatively new development and it is possible in large measure due to the open access to information and technology. An example is the data gathered through satellite maps, based on GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology, that have been developed by independent researchers This has enabled advocates of conservation to have an independent source of information to make an educated and well thought out case in favor of cooperative action. Technology has made information accessible, it has enabled instantaneous feedback, and it has provided greater credibility to the imperatives for global cooperation by widely dispersing information that was traditionally available to only a select few. The channels of communication between the scientific research community and the population are more open and more accessible.

The impact of the new technologies holds great promise in the area of disease and health care. The United States proposed the development of an advanced GII (Global Information Infrastructure) initiative following the World Telecommunications Conference in Argentina in 1994. Relying on existing wireless technology, including fiber optic links and computers, a GII network could lead to innovative health care delivery through telemedicine, linking hospitals and physicians across great distances and enabling remote diagnoses and treatment Access to a comprehensive database would empower health care professionals to provide timely help to patients in rural and urban locations that are not easily accessible. GII networks would have implications beyond health care extending to the transformation of disaster relief, education, manufacturing, and business.⁶

While acknowledging the beneficial impact of medical technologies throughout the world it is important to also recognize some of the problems inherent in sharing medical developments. Many patents for new products are concentrated in the West and this has raised questions of affordability by poor nations that are prevented from producing low cost versions of drugs to counter the high cost of imported medicines.⁷ A related problem concerns the use or misuse of new technologies by some traditional societies to skew the proportion of males to females in society. Both China, and India, whose societies are partial to male children, have been noted to have made attempts on the public (China) and the private (India) level for mishandling the predictive capabilities of new technologies. It is possible then to conclude that alongside the benefits of predictive medicine to ensure healthy populations, there is also the danger of misuse of this knowledge.

Internet management and governance poses a particularly interesting challenge for cooperative policy makers. The early history of internet growth and development fostered partially by government enterprise and partially by private initiative has contributed to the blurred boundaries of the regulatory agencies. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) Registries have different responsibilities and charges with respect to public interests and this is further reflected in their policy inputs as well. The Articles of Incorporation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) directly addresses the applicability of local and international law. ICANN is an example of an organization whose international members exercise a world wide authority, although it is technically a U.S. based private body. The Governmental Advisory Committee of ICANN (GAC), the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the World Intellectual Property Association (WIPO), and the Internet International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) also echo the problematic nature of private/public and national/international jurisdiction.

An example of success is the long standing collaborative relationship between three primary international bodies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which has ensured standardization of information technology and telecommunication and helped to steer clear of duplicative efforts.⁸

Economic Imperatives

Information technology, telecommunications, and information services continue to exhibit rapid growth and are increasingly viewed by governments as engines of global development. This is an area where extensive cooperative initiatives are at work especially those concerned with balancing the development needs of societies with differing levels of economic resources.

This is an instance where adaptation has an important role to play. The need for developing site- specific technologies that take in factors such as climate, local diseases, and energy resources, is often constrained by the cost of production. What drives this issue is the fact that most applications of technologies are produced through research conducted in the private sector (albeit with government incentives) since university research centers often do not immediately develop commercial applications of their projects. Further, the concentration of research in the commercial real...