The arrival of the “New” Institutionalization
Furthermore, the borderless proliferation of technology has been instrumental to helping increase economic activity among nations that previously may not have had such capabilities. For instance, technology has helped upgrade economies of less developed countries (LDCs) and has allowed them access to markets.
The advancement of technology has given rise to the need to revisit the institutional character of an economy. In fact, every facet of the political system, has necessitated the formulation of new or reformulation of existing policies, practices and behaviors.
Such institutional transformation is likely to affect political positionings within and outside ethnic borders. For instance, price stability, government debt and annual deficits, currency devaluation, and so on, were the convergence criteria imposed upon the member states of the European Union in the signing of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
Political Antagonism
Political antagonism has grown resulting mainly from
differences between nationalistic and globalist positions. Although political antagonism is an integral
part of any national political environment such antagonism has permeated the
global political environment. We will
call the former micro-antagonism and
the latter macro-antagonism.
In micro-antagonism populists exchange
against the elitists and this gives credence to the existence of
oligarchy. The exchange between such
antithetical attitudes seems to underscore the pursuit of each group’s
self-interest. Furthermore, it would
appear that as populism increases elitists become entrenched surging their
oligarchical positions. Seemingly, the
said opposite positions can be lessened through political tolerance, which
inherently is either absent or challenging to achieve, given that populism
appears to exhibit more heterogeneous positions within it than elitism. It follows that populists are less likely to
uniformly agree to political tolerance than elitists.
Macro-antagonism concerns achieving hegemonic positions of dominance in world affairs. This type of antagonism could potentially produce greater conflict, given that different political positions become even more deeply established as a result of different social cultures. In other words, the greater the gap is between disparate social cultures, the more incongruent their respective political positions are likely to be. Different value systems produce and reinforce divergent political positions resulting in political polarization. Furthermore, the pursuit of political hegemony necessitates a closer relationship between existing political culture and economic expediencies. This means that political dominance is made feasible, by and large, through the use of economic capabilities.
Economic Antagonism
Economic antagonism, in our current global environment, has become an integral part of the overall political and military strife among dominant nations. This antagonism has become fiercer due to differences in ideology. For instance, BRICS countries have increased their investment capability, their international trade activity and their contribution to global GDP. They have elevated themselves, as emerging markets, to become global economic players.
"Faith"- An Ingredient In Culture
The discussion on geopolitical realism would be relatively incomplete if it did not shed light on the issue of faith as, potentially, the ultimately critical core component of culture. An effective geopolitical policy should look into the element of faith and how it affects cultural positions and cross-cultural behaviors.
Culture flexibility varies from region to
region, from country to country and even within a country. For instance, the north-western hemisphere is, largely,
individualistic, whereas the southern-eastern hemisphere is, mainly, collectivistic. The complexity of culture is augmented because individualistic environments show collectivistic behaviors and trends, and, vice versa.
An analogous phenomenon is observed if we look into the various subcultures within a country. As evident, achieving tolerable uniformity between or among cultures is a challenge that must be addressed in a geopolitical environment if we hope to mitigate conflict and cultivate contrasting cultures. Elements of culture such as norms, symbols, rituals, language and more may be negotiated. But, values endure and they are considered to be the last frontier to achieving relative cross-cultural harmonization.
The core element of values is defined by faith. Faith is characterized by a relatively infinite number of levels that describe its depth and intensity. Those levels exist on a continuum from Atheism to Theism. This continuum includes Agnosticism. Environments that are dominated by either Theists or Atheists reflect extremely opposite cultural values. Even among Theists there may be great conflict. For instance, Monotheists would never accept Polytheism. Xenophon said: “God is one, Great, He does not resemble either in flesh or in mind with the human, He sees, understands, hears everything. And, although He remains outside the movement of the universe (that is, outside the genesis and decay of that universe) with His mind moves the universe.” Aristotle said: “God is one.” (To the scholars of ancient Greek: "Eνα τόν θεόν προσήκειν εiναι.")
Western thought has been different than Eastern traditional thinking. Western thought has evolved more rapidly than Eastern thought. Secularism is far more dominant in Western societies than in Eastern ones. In terms of faith, secularism promotes separation of State and Religion. Eastern Orthodox Christian theology asserts that the Source of Faith cannot be separated from earthly existence. In reality, such separation would result in effective disengagement of the Soul from the Body. The only optimum choice is both evident and indisputable.
Cross-Cultural strife
The subtlety of the influence of culture upon relations and relationships should not be ignored or discounted. Whether social or regulative, cultures exert great influence on behavior and they are hard to change. A culture is what I call the “last frontier” to relative globalization. The evolution of culture is a slow process, inhibited by the strength of values and the endurance of, and adherence to, tradition.
Simplistically, a culture may change either by adding to or subtracting elements from it. The popularity of certain elements of a particular culture would be an important factor to making the culture attractive, contributing to the rate of acculturation. [Acculturation is defined as learning a foreign culture.] For instance, the higher the level of acculturation of international business managers the greater the success of their business strategies in the foreign market.American culture has permeated the psyche of foreign societies through the concept of individual freedom, the use of the American audiovisual industry, the rapid spread of the English language and other favorable cultural idiosyncrasies. In my view, because of the above, the noted global impact of the American culture may offer an alternate name to globalization as Americanization.
