Exit Globalization?

A departing plane and a falling footballer
Augur end of globalization?
Crackling guns and a crying interpreter
Challenge the champion’s reputation.

The scheduled but abrupt winding up of US mission from Afghanistan left many unanswered questions. One of them vies serious pondering: Does this augur end of globalization? More particularly the concept of globalization that was relentlessly advocated and disseminated across the world by Occidental countries. A novel idea of a deeply connected world where liberal policies of the governments will create an open and less controlled environment so that individuals, enterprises will thrive. A global village where technologies will bring positive changes and make easy lives and livelihoods. A world where societies will accept customs, cultures of others and enrich themselves and come together to solve problems. A world where factors of production and ideas will travel freely.

Shaken and undermined is that concept of globalization. An overspent war and image of falling of a footballer,aspired to make his country proud in the international arena,nailed that idea of globalization. Crisis ,natural or engineered, pushed this idea towards the current state. Brexit could be the perfect first visible sign of that decay. Growing nationalism---fuelled by income gap in the rural and urban community and worsened in the UK by global financial crisis---and widening gap between richer EU countries and southern ones spiked the immigration crisis that molded the opinions of 52% of the British voters to leave UK. In addition,a growing UK contribution to EU (reached $10 in 2018) also played a crucial role to severe British link with the EU.^{1 & 2}

A NATO partner Turkey’s accession to EU could also be viewed as growing rift in the closely knitted countries of Europe,the shining example of interconnected countries. Seams appear to come out over the crisis of Cyprus. Cracks further widened during Turkey’s commissioning of S-400 system into its armed forces,costing it getting the F-35. No one witnesses a growing surge in illegal immigration in Occidental countries in recent decade. Intertwined link between global trade and contraband strengthened the organized criminal groups across the world. Citizens of war-ravaged,stateless people and poorly governed countries have become pawns of strategic ideologues who wanted to prove that globalization is not a two-way track.While Americans pay the Latin American countries to stall the flow of USA-bound illegal immigration, EU countries cut deals with Turkey,Maghreb and Libyan authority to contain the flow of EU-bound Syrian, Afghan,African and Asian refugees. In Bangladesh, authority is losing trust on the Western allies as they keep insisting on long-term plan of Rohingya refugee management instead of facilitating the repatriation process. Bitter Bangladesh turned down American request of hosting few batches of Afghan refugees. And Pakistan’s response was more reprimanding: “Do Americans need us only to clear their mess in Afghanistan?”

Pandemic also put into test the spirit of Globalization. While richer countries stockpiling vaccines, poorer ones pleaded to make some concession on intellectual rights of the vaccines. Many African countries,on the other hand,refused to use vaccines donated by other countries. As America stopped shipping vital ingredients to India to manufacture vaccines citing a law that requires that domestic urgency reign over export, BJP-led government in India was criticized at home and in the neighborhood for failing to deliver vaccines to the states and neighboring countries in time.³ Even the CEO of Serum Institute ,the company responsible for manufacturing and distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine in this part of the world, fled to UK and was invited to set up a plant there. Bangladesh,a country that had public facilities to manufacture vaccines prior to 80s,shut down public production facilities during the liberalization phase. Bangladesh’s frantic search for a vaccine did not get serious attention. Many citizens await second-dose of vaccine at home. When the vaccine made available: vaccine nationalization started to show its ugly color. As the multilateral donor agencies started lending to poorer countries to start mass vaccination, most of them exempted vaccines that do not have WHO approval. Russian Sputnik fell victim to such policy. Poorer countries like Bangladesh, Philippines opted for costly Chinese vaccines. While Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia,Kuwait made it clear foreign workers must have western vaccine, causing further woes to Corona-battered poor workers.

Like immigration, globalization has also failed to bring equity and justice in trade between North and South. Bangladesh has been exporting garments to the USA paying more tariff than any other countries. While industrial disasters in other partially closed countries like Vietnam and China often go unnoticed to the eyes of US authorities, Bangladesh,a dysfunctional democracy with media houses,faces all kinds of safety regulations to comply with the Western standards. Recently a new extension of such regulation pact has caused great unease among the exporters in the country. It comes at a moment when pandemic shut down many brand stores that regularly imported Bangladeshi garments.

In a globalized world, poorer countries faced uphill task to procure raw materials for industrial production and their development. Bangladesh procures junk ships to get scrap metal for meeting its steel and iron demands at home.

In the beginning of this year,a court in England says it clearly, from now onwards, a worker who suffered injuries while dismantling a ship owned by a British company will be eligible for compensation.

The UK court verdict casts some shadow too. As per EU ship recycling regulation, EU flag-carrying ships are being dismantled in EU-listed 26 yards from December 31,2018 in a bid to ensure greener and safer scraping (source: https://ec.europa.eu/info ).

None of the Bangladeshi yards are included in that list. As Britain unhooked itself from EU, it fell outside from that obligation. But this latest verdict will make British ship owners think twice before selling their old junks to Bangladeshi yards. Because in any bad event they have to pay huge fines and compensation. So they may prefer to sell their ships to third parties to shirk their responsibility. Or go for the EU-listed yards that are less prone to accidents.

Bangladeshi yards have been getting few or no old EU vessels to scrap from 2019. UK verdict now makes it harder to get old British vessels to scrap. Bad news for scrap metal and construction industry.⁴

Increased debt has often caused the debt-ridden countries to fall into the influence of undemocratic power in this globalized world. New multilateral lending institutions born in response to rigid stance of the ones based in the West.

Governance crisis deteriorated in recent years. There have been coups in Zimbabwe,in Mali,overthrown of government in Bolivia,assassination of president in Haiti,huge explosion in Lebanon unfolded the crisis of existence,brazen Turkish support for Azerbaijan in the conflict of Nagorno-Karabakh,and a pause on democracy for 2 years in Myanmar.Two mighty powerful neighbors have come close to start a war over a chunk of inhospitable terrain.Sophisticated algorithm and eavesdropping technology are being used to muzzle free voice and corner opposition. Farcical elections are more common than before. The need of a multilateral supervising authority has not been felt so dearly. In the wake of attack and counter attack on oil tankers in the Gulf,an Israeli official aptly captures the situation by saying to the press that there is no multilateral body whatsoever and it appears as if everyone is on their own.

Melting of $85 billion worth Afghan National Army and boasting of Western weaponry by the Talibans have made serious hole in Western military training and ability. Picture of pizza delivering Afghan communication minister in Germany reminded one the fate of former rulers---all living in the USA---of Caretaker govt of Bangladesh.But hapless plea of an Afghan interpreter running from one village to another for help put an end to ethical America that disseminated its image of an liberator and beacon of freedom and democracy.

But power should not come from barrel of the gun. If this is the case, then there may be eternal chaos. No one wants to set that precedent as it has serious repercussions for others. As long as people's and the weakest voices are not counted, stability and sustainability will remain out of reach.

From forming regional blocs to immigration policies, from free movement of factors of production to international financing, from bigger role of multilateral bodies to dispute resolution to governance, we are witnessing a low ebb in the concept of globalization. Biased side of globalization gets exposed when spirits of globalization is put into test. It may be easy to put this idea into challenges and take advantage of the fallouts in the short run but it is difficult to replace it or remodel with similar liberal values.

Notes And References:

1 “3 Reasons Brits Voted For Brexit”,John Mauldin,Forbes,July 15,2016Link here

2 “Causes Of The Vote In Favor Of Brexit”,WikipediaLink here

3. “US Embargo On Exporting Covid Vaccine Raw Materials And How It Could Impact India”,Simrin Sirur, The Print,April 21,2021Link here

4 “The Twist In Change”,Rezaul Hoque,https://hoquestake.blogspot.com,March 16,2019,Link here