How Globalization Influence Liberation

Globalization’s influence to liberation has been discussed in both Mark Duffield’s article “The New Development-Security Terrain and Mohammed G. Alkadry’s article, “Colonialism, Globalization and Democracy in the Decolonized Middle East”. Duffeild mentioned in his article that under the influence of globalization, governmental decisions that used to be hierarchical, territorial, and bureaucratic are now more polyarchial and non-territorial (Duffeild, 343). Governments and international organizations are getting more interested in collective interests, such as global peace and security and this is mainly influenced by globalization, as cultures and societies become more interconnected to each other. Through examining the impacts of post-colonized societies in the Middle East, Alkadry also pointed out that many societies desire for independence from institutional orders such as colonizers and more networking relations with other states.

Alkadry discussed the political situation of countries under colonial powers. He mentioned how colonial powers in the Middle East opposed any attempts of local leaders creating any form of democratic institutions. Colonialism became a form of confinement, a situation opposing liberation. Globalization influence the forming of liberation as it passes the message of freedom, human rights, and security.  Globalization forces colonizers out of their occupied territories which brought the Middle East to where it is today, modern, diverse, but rich with traditional cultures. Colonial powers, by delineating arbitrary states, affected the notion of civil society and solidarity, which are important to the Islamic traditions. In other words, by eliminating the sense of solidarity among the Arab societies, the colonizers are indirectly responsible for eliminating the sense of interconnectedness Middle East once had. Globalization’s role in influencing this, has positively redirected the Middle East back to their solidarity traditions of sharing and interconnecting.

Globalization has underlined the importance of freedom and thus prioritized what the people wants and needs. People want the sense of belonging, security, equality and respect. Globalization enforces these rights which are generally human rights. Globalization encourages the international community to interconnect with each other, and build the need or reason for countries to network, creating a global circle, where no one is alone. Although not all Middle Eastern countries crave for complete liberation, the idea of Globalization has made clear to governments that society needs interconnection, relation with other states. Governments has come to realize that no states can work alone, and that solidarity is needed from other states to overcome problems such as conflicts, natural disasters, and threat of international security. Globalization shows that colonialism is only disadvantaging many sides, as it pulls away state’s opportunity to interconnect with other states, which reduces chances for world peace and security.

Rossa D.