The Role Of Global Disparities In Divided Nations

Only through a liberal understanding of the world can one believe that addressing the biggest global challenges requires international cooperation. Relatedly, it is essential that countries recognize that the biggest threats facing a nation are becoming increasingly global, and that sovereignty must be redefined from coercion and exclusion to cooperation and inclusion. Financial crises, pandemics, cyber security, migration, and climate change have emerged from globalization and pose the greatest threat to global governance. However, as argued by Ian Goldin in Divided Nations, the international institutions created in the 20th century have been incapable of adapting to address these issues. It is essential that nation states proactively repurpose
Up until the early 20th century, the U.S had no interest in increasing its international role or presence, and it wasn’t until WWI and WWII that such a role became inevitable in order to maintain a stable world order. Commenting on this shift of American interest from domestic to international, author Walter Russell Mead states: “Maintaining an open global economic system is vital to continued American prosperity. Maintaining a stable geopolitical order is vital to continued American security. And promoting values of freedom and self-determination worldwide is a critical element of these two missions.” In addition, and as a result of the hyper-connectivity brought about through globalization, issues that were once isolated to specific nations can now pose significant risk to others - for instance, pathogens such as H1N1 spread country to country in a matter of weeks thanks to air travel. Thus, it can be argued that the maintaining international institutions that can address new and complex challenges is in the key interest of the United States.
Five Challenges Facing Global Governance
Author Ian Goldin argues that the biggest challenges of global governance in the 21st century are the following: climate change, cyber security, pandemics, migration, and finance. These five global challenges are the underbelly of accelerated globalization; however, international institutions have been unsuccessful
The first case of ‘swine flu’ (H1N1) was recorded on March 17, 2009 in Mexico, and by March 28 there were recorded cases in the US, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, Israel, and New Zealand. The two major trends driving our increased exposure to lethal global pathogens are travel/transport and increased proximity through a combination of urbanization and population growth. Similar to the challenge of pathogens, cyber security in relation to technological advances tend to be a double-edged sword.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is a key challenge for local and global governance in the 21st century. Thus, understanding how to prevent, or at least mitigate, the most systemically harmful consequences of the technological changes associated with the Internet and computing is still at a dangerously young stage. In contrast to the recency of the challenge of cybersecurity, migration is not a new phenomenon; however, the forces that have increased migration in the past are continuing to intensify, requiring that more attention be paid to domestic policy and migration governance.