People rarely analyze their lives in terms of the influence of world processes on it. Ordinary citizens are mostly concerned about their personal lives and income levels, less often about the state of the environment, the work of social institutions, and so on. But the world is becoming more and more “small” every year. Global political problems are growing, reaching out with their tentacles to every person. And you can't hide from them. Their scope and tension are so great that no one will be able to escape or sit out "in the bunker"! There is only one thing left - to unite efforts. So what are global political problems? How do they affect life? How to deal with them? Let's figure it out.
What's global in politics?
First you need to understand the concepts. The loud phrase "global political problems" is now used to refer to many phenomena, some of which do not apply to it at all.
To independently separate the wheat from the chaff, let's analyze this concept into its constituent parts.
The word "global" means "concerning all mankind". This is not some kind of problem of one state (albeit a very important one). This is how a planetary phenomenon is characterized.
The second word - "political" - is especially important. It, in fact, discards some of the problems, makes them secondary to those that this term describes. Only those questions remain that can be resolved by political means. That is, this word denotes negative phenomena on a planetary scale, regulated by long-term management decisions.
Let's look for global political problems in everyday life to understand their essence. Think about the people who live nearby. Do they all eat their fill, allow themselves to buy what they need, have good jobs and prosperity? Most likely, the answer will be no.
Now take a look at the news feeds. All of them are full of messages about the discussion of the debts of states. You can also look out the window. What is the status of your area? Is it as good as nature intended? Just a few glances around, and we have already stumbled upon the consequences of a global policy that did not lead to the flourishing of civilization.
What are called problems in global politics?
Now you can move on to the list of those phenomena that are discussed at almost all meetings of heads of state and specialists, designed to guide the development of civilization. The first of these is poverty. More than seven billion people live on Earth.
Andmost of them live in poverty. People don't have enough money to buy a piece of bread. This problem concerns not one state. The situation harms the development of all mankind. People simply die from disease or exhaustion. In addition, their potential (labor, creativity, and so on) is not realized.
The second problem is debt. This is not about the funds that need to be paid to households (in the terminology of economists). The debts of countries are now so great that scientists cannot offer any intelligible way out of the situation.
Third - ecology. A person, as experts say, has been conducting thoughtless activities for a long time, thereby giving rise to world global problems. The state of the environment is a clear confirmation of this. We can see for ourselves some of the negative results of this activity. In the cities - smog, in the fields - soil erosion, forests no longer occupy as much space as they used to. Yes, and the climate presents unpleasant surprises that cannot be predicted.
The global problems of the world concern not only the physical condition of the planet and its inhabitants. The behavioral aspects of population groups also pose a threat to humanity. I mean terrorism. It is now on a grand scale. Terrorist states have already begun to emerge.
These are the main global problems of our planet. They share several traits, which we will discuss in more detail below.
Basic Features
Scientists have analyzed and systematized the characteristics of the above negative phenomena. Here are the conclusions they came to. Worldglobal problems are distinguished by the following features:
- are global in nature;
- threaten the existence of mankind;
- are urgent, that is, they need to be resolved as soon as possible;
- interconnected;
- can only be overcome by joint efforts.
It must be said that many of the issues facing society fall under such criteria. And over time, they become more and more. If earlier humanity was actively engaged in ecology and disarmament, now it has become concerned about the decrease in resources, the state of the oceans, the radicalization of society, and much more.
Causes of global problems
These negative phenomena were born and formed in the depths of society along with its development. It cannot be said that the global problems of the world are caused by only one priority factor. Everything influences them: the huge production capacities that humanity has accumulated, and population growth, and its worldview.
Economic opportunities are turning from a positive factor into a negative one. Nature suffers from the consumer attitude towards it. Plants and factories not only recycle resources at a gigantic pace, they pollute space and destroy the earth. And they cannot be stopped in the current paradigm of human development, as this will lead to terrible wars for consumer goods.
The population is increasingly striving for the thoughtless use of difficult-to-manufacture and expensive things. That is, perhaps indirection of our development a mistake has crept in. We strive to consume more and more, without thinking about how much it costs the planet. It turns out that only the activity and direction of human development give rise to global political problems. Examples can be found in every country. Everywhere there are poor and unhappy people. Every state faces problems of ecology or terrorism. And there are so many weapons on the planet that the Earth can be completely destroyed. The causes of global problems must be considered comprehensively.
The birth of one pulls the appearance or escalation of another. All of them are closely interconnected. And together they become the source of the emergence of new ones. Perhaps after some time the opposition of ideas will be included in their list.
Global political problems, examples of which we can study, already show signs of the emergence of new ones. The loss of the meaning of existence by many members of modern society is one of them. As Russian thinkers say, a national idea is needed.
Poverty
I must say that the global problems of politics have been studied for a long time. The fact that many people live below the poverty line is discussed by scientists at various levels. The fact is that this problem is circular in nature. Due to low income levels, people do not have the opportunity to get an education and, consequently, to engage in highly productive work. The society lacks the potential for development. After all, the economy can be built up only if there are (apart from funds) high-qualityspecialists. In a poor society, there is nowhere to take them, you have to attract foreigners. In addition, investment does not come to problem countries due to multiple risks. Poverty leads to an escalation of social tension and unrest. Such countries suffer from revolutions and regime change. New ones, by the way, fall into the same vicious circle. Poverty generates another global problem - terrorism. And it affects negatively not only developing countries. Armed specialists are able to move freely around the planet.
There are almost no countries that are not the territory of interest of terrorists. The results of their activities in individual states directly depend on the success of the work of the special services.
Debts
Global political problems of humanity are sometimes artificial. These include the debt crisis. Its roots are believed to go back to the seventies of the last century. Then in developed countries, a sufficient amount of loan capital was formed, which had to be invested.
People who regulate cash flows decided to direct them to the development of the Asian region. The investment has done its job. The industry in this region gained momentum, which, unfortunately, did not save us from the crisis. The fact is that not all countries were able to pay off interest on debts. They had to declare bankruptcy. After the first such incident, it became clear that the monetary system could collapse at once if no efforts were made to stabilize it.
Peaceinterdependent, including in the financial sector. The impossibility of fulfilling obligations by one or several players leads to problems for the rest. And given that there are not so many countries that do not have debts, it is understandable why the world economy began to be compared with a soap bubble.
In general, humanity is obliged to pay much more than it produces. Here, the rules and principles of the economy are already creating socio-political global problems. It turns out that developing in debt is unprofitable for states. They simply do not have time to increase their resources in such quantities to repay loans. We have to reduce social obligations, which leads to tensions.
Environmental Issues
When considering the global political problems of our time, along with others, they call the negative impact of man on the state of the environment. We have only one planet.
But, unfortunately, while we are destroying it. Industry as a whole affects global processes on the planet. Here we should talk about climate shifts, melting glaciers, changing the direction of ocean currents, and so on. Any of these processes can lead to such changes in climate that the life of mankind will be in danger.
Some experts believe that society cannot influence negative phenomena, they come by themselves. That is, the melting of glaciers is the same regularity as the change of magnetic poles. Nevertheless, the ecosystem requires close attention and, of course, extremelycaring attitude.
Global problem: terrorism
The above-described contradictions, disturbing society from the inside, have led people to take up arms. If we approach the problem in a global sense, we can see that their actions are based not on the desire to implement some aggressive plans, but on the desire to achieve justice.
Nevertheless, society is under constant threat of complete annihilation. After all, terrorists can get access not only to small arms. Now there are opportunities to create or capture more terrible weapons of mass destruction, the consequences of the use of which by a single group of people are terrible to think about. In addition, hazardous industries (such as nuclear power plants) can also be targeted. It is clear that man-made disasters will affect the entire planet. There are already examples. This is the Chernobyl disaster or the Fukushima accident. Terrorism as a global problem of our time is the most relevant and urgent.
Comprehensive approach
To deal with challenges and contradictions, a simple approach is not enough. All problems are interconnected and strongly intertwined. It is believed that they can be solved using conceptual methods. That is, a deep program should be developed that affects the main worldview aspects of the existence of mankind. For example, the idea of reducing consumption, reorienting to other values can reduce the level of stress in several areas at once.
Attempts to work in this direction are constantly being made. Here you can point to the movement of the "greens". A lot of them. They are trying to prove that resources are not unlimited, they must be treated with care. Only work is going on at the public level, which is clearly not enough. Problems accumulate much faster than the trends in society necessary to resolve them develop.
Work of international organizations
Many institutions deal with global problems. Considerable funds are allocated for this. Experts from various fields are constantly monitoring the situation and conducting research. Naturally, global managers receive their conclusions and recommendations. The difficulty here is that the solution cannot be simple. It is necessary to take into account the interests of states, which often contradict each other. Reaching consensus takes a significant amount of time.
The world is changing, we have to adjust the decisions made again. This alone is not enough. The international bureaucratic machine cannot cope with the challenges, sometimes hinders the implementation of decisions already taken. Humanity is facing the need for radical change. The system built in the last century is failing. Conceptual solutions are required that would make it possible to radically change approaches to the formation of ways to get rid of global challenges. Otherwise, we simply may not have time to respond to another disaster.
Science gives increasingly unfavorable forecasts of climate change. Unfortunately, they are confirmed by the realities of life. The Gulf Stream, for example,is slowing down, the glaciers are melting faster. But these phenomena concern every person. It turns out that we should look for ways to save the planet together. Since the intergovernmental bodies are not coping, the public needs to get involved. By the way, this may be a kind of incentive to reduce the level of relevance of several global risks at once. The mere mass awareness and understanding of existing problems in itself leads to a change in behavioral and worldview habits.
