The Global Age

1
The Global Age

• 1989 to the Present

2
Political Change

• The Breakup of Yugoslavia
• End of communist rule, break up, descent into
  ethnic warfare
• Slobodan Milosevic in power in Serbia, 1987-2000
• Wars against Croatia, Bosnian Muslims, and Kosovo
  Albanians NATO bombing campaigns
• ethnic cleansing

3
The Collapse of the Soviet Union and Its
Consequences

• Soviet republics demanding independence
• Lithuania and other Baltic republics seceded from
  USSR, Spring 1990
• Pressure by reformers who wanted quick transition
  to market economy democracy
• Boris Yeltsin, president of Russian Republic
  (1990-1999)
• Economic collapse

4

• Coup Attempt, August 1991
• Hard-line communists last gasp
• Yeltsins finest moment
• The End, Dec. 24, 1991
• USSR dissolved, effective Jan. 1, 1992
• Gorbachev dismissed ceded power to Yeltsin

5

• Commonwealth of Independent States
• Composed of 11 former Soviet republics
• Still dominated by Russia
• Difficulties in making transition to market
• economy and democratic government
• Corruption, organized crime
• Ethnic conflicts
• Disastrous campaigns against Muslim
• rebels in Chechnya
• Vladimir Putin (Russian president, 2000-)
• Punishment of corrupt businessmen
• Tightened state control of media

6
Beyond the Nation-State

• Economic and Political Integration in Europe
• Treaty of Maastricht, 1991
• Transformation of EEC into European Union, 1992
• Common currency (European Currency Unit, or
  euro), 1999
• European Parliament

7
Global Challenges

• Pollution and Population
• Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion, 1986
• Acid rain, holes in the ozone layer, global
  warming, greenhouse effect
• Population boom in developing countries caused,
  in part, by decline in death rate due to
  introduction of Western medicine
• Population growth a major factor in growing
  economic divide between Northern and Southern
  Hemispheres

8

• North versus South?
• With some exceptions, people in the South
  experienced lower standards of living and
  restricted access to health care
• Sub-Saharan Africa plagued by environmental
  destruction, drought, famine, and civil wars
• South Africa
• Apartheid system dismantled
• Former political prisoner Nelson Mandela elected
  president under new democratic constitution in
  1994

9

• Islam Confronts the West
• Islamic fundamentalism offered an alternative to
  westernization, but power in the Middle East
  remained fragmented. Pan-Arabic or Pan-Islamic
  unity proved difficult to achieve.
• Afghanistan War, 1979-1989
• Soviets defeated by Islamic rebels
• Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988
• Gulf War, 1990-1991
• Saddam Husseins attempt to annex
• Kuwait foiled by international force led
• by U.S.
• Ongoing conflict and negotiations between
• Israel and the Palestinians
• Sept. 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.
• Removal of the Taliban regime in
• Afghanistan by U.S.-led forces, Oct.
• 2001
• Fall of Husseins regime in Iraq,
• March-April 2003

10

• The Rise of the Pacific Economy
• Shift in economic power from the Atlantic region
  to the Pacific in the 1980s
• PacificTigers Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong
  Kong, and Singapore
• IMF policies, irresponsible and corrupt financial
  practices caused severe economic crisis in Asia
  in late 1990s

11

• Global Culture and Western Civilization
• The Impact of Global Migration
• Refugees from warfare and political persecution
• Millions emigrated to Western Europe and the U.S.
• Other areas, among them the Middle East, Nigeria,
  and Singapore, brought in millions of foreigners
  for the labor force
• Influx of new populations caused political
  parties with racist programs to achieve some
  electoral success in Western Europe

12

• Global Networks and the Economy
• Rapid expansion of the Internet in the 1990s
  posed another challenge to the nation-state
• Importance of computer skills helped to create
  both a new elite and a new underclass

13

• The Global Diffusion of Culture
• Culture from Beyond the West
• Building Post-Soviet Culture
• U.S. Cultural Dominance
• Postmodernism
• Reflected new global arts, in which various forms
  coexisted without a central unifying theme or a
  privileged canon
• Also seen as defining a movement away from
  various 18th-century ideas, such as individualism
  or belief in the nation-state
• Another definition stressed the unfreedom or
  irrationality that shaped human life
• For some, the message was that the rational,
  independent, and superior West was an illusion

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