Introduction to Globalization - 1st year
Designed to give students a solid intellectual foundation to prepare them to become global students. Through careful reading and research about major global issues, students will learn the intricate nature of those issues and the urgent necessity to cope with them. The course will also provide students opportunities to analyze ample statistical information and produce a comprehensive book review.
Objectives:
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of the origins and present state of major global issues and the relevance among those issues;
2. Clearly identify the difference between “internationalism” and “globalism”;
3. Identify different role players in the global society: individual persons, local communities, nation-states, and international organizations;
4. Use extensive statistical sources;
5. Identify the roles they should take in their lives to cope with global issues such as environmental deterioration, population explosion, and wealth gap.
Topics:
Course topics will include the following:
1. Introduction to selected global issues:
2. Political, e.g., international war and conflict, nationalism and security, migrations, ethnic and religious conflicts, human rights, terrorism, international policing and new world order.
3. Economic, e.g., food and hunger, development, employment, housing, disease and medical care, education, transportation, sanitation, transnational business, resource extraction, disparity of wealth.
4. Environmental, e.g., air and water pollution, deforestation, soil depletion, species extinction, urban growth, population growth, toxic waste, natural resource depletion.
5. Technological, e.g., nuclear accidents, energy crisis, information age, regional disparity, future directions.
6. Social, e.g., cultural imperialism, human rights, ethnic cleansing, multiculturalism, family structures, property rights, religious conflicts.
7. The above issues are to be discussed relative to their origin, scope, interconnectedness and consequences.
8. Survey of historical and current literature that seeks to theoretically identify, place and
understand the dynamics of global issues.
9. Examination of efforts to address and resolve global issues, whether on a national, regional, or international level, whether through governmental or non-governmental organizations and processes.
Method of Instruction:
1. Lectures
2. Discussions
3. Video
4. Data analysis
Types of Assignments:
1. Read textbook
2. Quizzes
3. A special reading assignment for a comprehensive book report
4. Mid-term and final exams
Sample Text:
1. Global Issues 00/01 (Jackson, Robert M. Ed., The Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., Guilford, CT,2001)
2. State of the World 2001 (Brown, Lester, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2001)
3. An Introduction to Global Environmental Issues (Pickering, Kevin T., and Lewis A. Owen, Routledge, New York, 1997)
4. Green Essentials (Saign, Geoffrey C., Mercury House, San Francisco, 1994)
