Study Questions: Chapter 13
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1. According to Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs, how have trade links between the world’s population increased between 1980 and the turn of the century?
Many more people are linked by trade. In 1980, about a quarter of the world’s population was linked by trade. Two decades later, close to 90 per cent of the world’s population was linked by trade. (p. 422)
2. What are the implications of the movement of people between countries?
More exchanges in cultural values, more rapid and widespread diffusion of diseases, new security concerns, introduction of animal and vegetable species in parts of the world that did not know them, the emergence of the virtual global village. All of these flows may have happened previously but globalization has caused them to increase in volume, reach, and in their consequences. (p. 422)
3. What is the definition of globalization offered in the text?
For Brooks and Ménard, globalization means the historically unprecedented speed and scope of exchanges between different societies and regions of the world. (pp. 421–422)
4. Outline the critique of capitalism made by Karl Marx.
It creates competitive and mutually exclusive interests (i.e., between the owners of the means of production and those who sell their labour); the gap between the rich and poor widens and greater polarization of interests occurs; capitalists search the globe for workers and resources and draw more people into the cycle of exploitation; governments become the protectors of capitalist interests and the instruments for the repression of the subordinate classes. (p. 424)
5. What is the argument made by Barry Lynn regarding the vulnerability of the economies of developed countries as a result of globalization? Is there evidence to support his view?
The new post-industrial model, spawned by globalization, is all about outsourcing. Thus, large companies establish dense and highly-specialized supply networks. Disruption in a crucial supply link could bring entire industries to a halt. According to Brooks and Ménard, this argument was demonstrated in 2008 by the American sub-prime crisis. (p. 424)
6. In what ways is the Canada–US economic relationship asymmetrical?
Asymmetry here means that Canada is more dependent on the US economically than is the US on Canada. The table on page 425 shows this asymmetry. It shows, for example, that 75 per cent of Canada’s exports go to the US. By contrast, 19 per cent of the US’s exports go to Canada. (pp. 424–426)
7. What are Allan Gotlieb’s two recommendations to Canada for overcoming its disadvantaged position in its trade relations with the United States?
Gotlieb’s recommendations are to aim influence at the highest levels of the US government (i.e., the president and top personal advisors) and to tighten formal integration with the US. (p. 426)
8. What is the definition of “multilateralism” given in the textbook?
Multilateralism “involves the resolution of international differences and conflicts through structures and processes that represent many states and that give all of them a voice, though not necessarily an equal voice, in decision-making.” (p. 427)
9. How far and in what circumstances can Canada’s foreign policy depart from that of the United States?
It can depart up to the point when serious and enduring consequences, beyond the loss of goodwill, would fall on Canada. (pp. 427–428)
10. What is meant by the term “soft power,” as defined by Joseph Nye?