EMERGING GLOBAL ORDER: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

EMERGING GLOBAL ORDER: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
The cold war came to an end in later 1991 with the disintegration of the soviet union. The unification of germany in Europe, the breaking up and subsequent chaos in the Balkans and east African states, formation of economic blocs like APEC, NAFTA, and the European Union have all been pointers to a unipolar world where the United States is the sole superpower on the scene. The political ideological identification with one power bloc or the other has been replaced by gravitating towards a new global economic order, stressing the inter-dependence of nations on one another. It received a shot in the arm with signing of the new GATT Treaty at Marrakesh on April 15,1994 by 125 nations, including india.

     While political integration may yet take a long time to materialize with the ongoing civil war in many countries like Yugosalvia, Afghanistan, yemen, Rwanda and several other nations, a new global economic order may be feasible in the near future. The economic compulsions, even for industrials giants like the United states, japan, and other G-7 members, may soon compel them to work towards an economic integration of the world while the United States calls the shots in the political arena, including the running of the United Nations through proxy.

        Trying to evolve an economic mechanism to integrate the world has been the major concern of GATT over the years. Now that it has been replaced by the world trade organisation, a new economic global order may soon become a reality. The only caution to be adopted would be that the poor, developing countries do not suffer and are not discriminated against by the rich, developed countries. If tariffs are to be lowered and trade barriers eliminated it must be done at all levels and for all countries. The concept of granting the most favoured nation status to one country is rank discrimination. Nor should a particular country, the united state has been doing of late, lay down its own trade laws and make others toe its line of action or thoughts in trade matters. The application of super 301 by the United States hangs like the proverbial sword of damocles. This must stop if a new economic global order is to be emerge in the next decade or so.

      In the political sphere also, the NATO Partnership for peace programme, initiated by the USA, has been widely welcomed. If the United States means well, it must elicit the cooperation of its former adversaries like Russia and east European nations towards making this programme a success. It is heartening to note that nations like hungary and Russia have joined it.

         If a political integration is to be achieved, the highly discriminatory nuclear non-proliferation treaty must also be revised to treat all nuclear-weapons states equally. The very fact that it is discriminatory has prevented india and several other nations from signing it. And no amount of pressure or arm-twisting has yielded any results so far. The strategic war initiative or star wars, launched by the United States, has failed. It should realize that the world now wants peace and work towards this goal if a new political order is to evolve in times to come. But it will have to follow-and not precede- the economic global order. Both political and economic integration cannot come about simultaneously.

       In the context of global scenario, the leaders of developing countries like india should not remain peeny-wise and pound-foolish in national and global politics. Rather it should engage in foregoing the closer interaction among the developing countries to set about the struggle in this global rat race competition. The G-15 countries should work in bringing better adherence and closer cooperation of the third world for restricting the UN security Council and other world bodies to reflect the changed scenario of the world.