"Small village"... is a description that specialists have given our modern world with the spread of the concept of globalization, which has allowed and facilitated the movement of trade between countries, changing the world from distant countries to neighboring houses in a village in which countries depend on each other.
Since the spread of the concept of globalization in the nineties of the last century, the trade relations of countries from the east to the west of the world have deepened and strengthened.
However, the past few years have witnessed crises, which indicate that the world is heading towards the formation of "closed societies" within the familiar small village.
Since the outbreak of the Corona epidemic at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, global supply chains have been affected, and it has become clear to the world that they have become dependent on each other in a way that rings a bell for some countries, including the United States, that their dependence on other countries is a real danger.
At the end of February of this year, the Ukrainian crisis broke out, which halted Kyiv's exports of grain to the countries of the world, pushing some of them to the brink of starvation, and raised food prices sharply, harming other countries.
The world was also not spared the high oil prices after the Ukraine crisis. The specter of inflation hovered in the skies of many countries, reaching rates not seen in nearly 40 years.
In the early days of August, tensions intensified after the visit of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives to the Southeast Asian island of Taiwan, angering China, which says that Taiwan is an essential part of its territory.
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| Walls of alliances... divide what we once knew as the "little village" |
To wake the United States up to the fact that Taiwan makes more than half of the world's electronic chips, which are an essential part of most modern technology industries.
With the intensification of crises... will the alliances, with their wide walls, divide the map of the "small village" established by the concept of globalization?
changes in globalization
Globalization began with economic openness in order to facilitate the export of products from the industrialized countries to other countries, according to Dr. Muhammad Al-Hadab, an expert in economics and public policy, and a professor of financial accounting at Al al-Bayt University in Jordan.
Al-Hadab adds that the concept of globalization has been extended to include the political and cultural aspects of relations between states.
He pointed out that the Corona epidemic and its impact on supply chains, and the Ukraine crisis, made it clear to the countries of the world that they had become highly dependent on other countries.
Fears of Taiwan's control of the chip production industry prompted the United States to work to support and strengthen the chip industry on its soil. US President Joe Biden signed a law providing $52 billion in support to boost the industry, which the United States deems "sensitive" to it.
Since the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, European Union countries have been searching for alternatives to Russian gas that can generate energy, in conjunction with a plan announced by the European Commission aimed at reducing the demand for gas from the European Union.
Al-Hadab explained that the high dependence of countries on others has become alarming, prompting major countries to search for side alliances that guarantee them priority access to their needs easily, to avoid crises that may be exposed to them as a result of supply chains or political conflicts.
Such as alliances between China and Russia, and between the United States, the European Union, Britain, and others, which extend to many commodities and products, including grain and food, to electronics, oil and others.
With the suspension of grain from Ukraine, one country after another began announcing the moratorium on grain exports, with the aim of enhancing their food security, while offering "specific exceptions" to specific countries.
Divisions and marginalization.. in the small village
With the intensification of crises the world is witnessing, countries are searching for clear paths of cooperation with specific countries, most likely to share clear relations closer to the alliance.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen of South Korea said the US and its trusted trading partners should enhance the resilience of supply chains through the "friends support" method.
Yellen stressed the need for the United States and its allies to support work to create "supply chains" among trusted partners.
According to Yellen, the "friends support" mechanism is a policy aimed at isolating supply chains between friendly countries from external disturbances, through a group of countries with common values publishing policies that enhance cooperation with friendly countries that share the same values.
Al-Hadab said that the absence of solutions to the crises the world is currently witnessing has become the most obvious thing, noting that the current conflicts may not witness a breakthrough soon.
There is currently no clear solution to the Ukraine crisis, and China relies in its approach and conflict with the United States on a "long-term" policy.
He added that the current data shows that more alliances may form in the world to ensure their basic needs, but that the neediest, most consuming, and poorest countries will become marginalized outside any alliances.
Al-Hadab believes that developing countries may be the most affected by the policy of alliances that the countries of the world are currently undertaking, as their marginalization from alliances is more likely, as they do not produce the goods that developed countries need.
The professor of economics does not rule out that the global economy will witness a recession due to the current crises, which means that the pace of divisions within the "small village" may become faster, without solutions in the near term.
The CEO of the American company "BlackRock", Larry Fink, had said that the Ukrainian crisis had "ended globalization as we knew it," as he put it in a report published by "CNN".
Fink, who heads the company that manages more than $10 trillion in assets, said companies around the world are reassessing how much they rely on other countries to make their products.
He explained that the main reason is the sanctions imposed by many countries on Russia, which may cause it to isolate economically from the rest of the world.
He added that the Ukraine crisis was the scene of the end of globalization that the world has known in 3 decades, after the Corona epidemic drew the lines paving the way for this end, noting that the biggest beneficiary of the end of globalization will be the local companies in the industrialized countries and their allies.
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