BY Mr. R. B. Absattarov, Ph.D., Philosophical Sciences, Professor

(Almaty, Kazakhstan)

 

POLITICAL GLOBAL STUDIES AS A FORM OF A NEW SCIENCE

 

Global issues of the humankind – contradictions and problems - are marked by the global scale of occurrence, great severity and dynamism.  The modern political science considers the global issues as the ones that appear to be the key factor for the civilization development involving the vital interests of the entire humankind for solution of which the collective efforts taken by the entire global society are required.  This matter is the subject of the new science – the political global studies.

For the modern political global studies it is principally significant to understand which of the issues should be considered as universal, global ones.  It appears to be more complicated task, than it could seem at first sight.  The contemporary world is sophisticated, diversified, fast moving and inconsistent.  It is the world full of the dramatic alternatives, concerns and hopes.  Our planet has never before been under such political and physical stresses.  The humankind has never before taken as much toll, and it has never before become so much vulnerable in front of the power, which was created by the humankind itself.

However the nature and the scale of the contradictions, concerns, overpressure and challenges occurrence in the modern world are different.  One of them can be the consequence of the world politics, other ones appear to be the result of the scientific and technological revolution and economic activity of the humankind, and the third ones can be associated with the natural conditions in which the modern people live.  Only some of them are global, while the rest of them are regional and locally concentrated.

Many of the globalists in various countries attempt to make the lists, catalogues and registers of the universal human problems. Thus, for example, the authors of “Encyclopaedia of World Problems and Human Potential”, which was published in Munich in 1991, listed over 12 thousand problems as universal ones.  Such extensive interpretation of the universal human range of problems gives rise to serious objections from the part of some specialists.  According to the identified and unified criteria the modern science considers the universal problems as the ones, which:

—involve the living interests of the entire humankind, all countries and nations and each individual on our planet to any extent;

— act as an objective factor of the modern civilization development, i.e. the ones, which eventually become universal despite their specific manifestation within the borders of individual countries and regions;

— turn to become extremely acute, endangering the positive development of the humankind and threatening the collapse of the civilization if no constructive ways are found for their solution;

— require collective efforts of all countries and nations, entire world society for their solution.

It is important to note that the universal problems are determined by the global scale of their manifestation, great acuteness, complexity and correlation, as well as dynamism.

In this context the scientists, first of all, discuss the persisting risk of nuclear war, preservation of peace in the world, protection of the environment, ethnopolitical, power-producing, primary resources, food and demographic problems, the subject of the peaceful outer space exploration and use of the World ocean resources, coping with the economic lag of many emergent nations, elimination of dangerous diseases and etc.

The contemporary global studies represent the system of the cross-disciplinary attainments about the vital universal human problems.  Within the course of its dynamic development more attention is paid to the analysis of the universal problems and searching of solutions for the problems of the political nature or the ones that are related to the political sphere.  Therefore, the global studies and the political science got to closer interaction with each other.  This resulted in emergence of the new school – the political global studies.  In my opinion, there are four basic approaches to the understanding of the global problems phenomenon in the political perspective can be marked out in its genesis:

- Analysis of the political aspects in the universal human problems overall;

- The political analysis of individual global problems and their correlation with both: the system of the international relations, and with the specific strands of the world policy;

-  Analysis of the global problems manifestation within the individual regions of the global society and their effect on development of the local political situation;

- Development of the theoretical and methodological bases for political and globalist researches.

The analysis of the universal human problems emergence and aggravation appears to become rather substantial within the framework of the first approach.  Many scientists associate them with the existing restrictions, or limits of the humankind development, as it is usually called in terms of global studies.  Though it should be noted that the significant part of the specialists does not treat such restrictions as a barrier on the path of the progressive civilization development, which is principally insuperable.

Some globalists (J. Forrester, D. Meadows and others) assume that the limits of the world are of physical nature and, it its most general form, can be expressed in its finiteness and degradability.  Those limits were called “external” and they are, firstly, associated with such global problems, as: provision of the food production resources to humankind, environment pollution, issues of the human population, urbanization and etc.

The most complete description of the external limits was given at first in the first report “Limits of Growth”, which was prepared under supervision of D. Meadows, at the Club of Rome (the Club of Rome is the non-governmental organization for global problems researches established in 1968).

For the global problems research the authors of “Limits of Growth” have applied for the first time the computer model based on which they tried to simulate and predict the possible ways of the humankind development under the conditions of the global problems aggravation.  Thus, D. Meadows and his colleagues have concluded that if the policy of the world society “unlimited growth” is preserved, then the humankind may encounter the catastrophic situation already in the middle of the 21st century as a result of reaching out to the external limits.  The concept of the “global balance” was offered as a solution for avoidance of such perspective.  The “global balance” implies the status of the global system when the population and the industrial production remain invariable, while the forces, which make those factors grow or decrease, are kept balanced under close control.

Another group of the scientists (E. Laszlo, J. Bierman and others) thinks that the internal limits are critical for determination of the humankind development, not the external ones.  The internal limits are understood as psychological, cultural and, mainly, political limits in the life activity of the people and society, which can be found in poor individual and collective management, irresponsibility and short-sightedness in political activities.

Thus, the responsibility and adequacy of the political government in the contemporary world appear to be the key factor that affects the status of the global problem situation.  Nowadays, the globalization of the responsibility, which is laid over the politicians that make the particular political decisions on international relations and global development matters, occurs. The adequate government implies the consideration of multifactor nature of the global political process and existence of its limits, crossing of which can result in global catastrophe. 

Making of the political decisions is associated with forecasting of the global society development under the conditions of the fundamental humankind problems effect. [1].  The policy that can be quickly corrected with consideration of the occurring social and natural changes appears to be more efficient and requiring less energy and costs in distinction from the political activities, which have been taken with significant delay.  The dynamics of the global problem situation growth demonstrated that it becomes more complicated to overcome or, at least, mitigate the global problem when it is recognized by the majority of the global population with delay.

Along with the forecasting it is also significant to retrospectively analyse the reasons of the deep contradictions emergence at the previous stages of the global society evolution and the historical experience of their settlement.  The retrospective analysis often demonstrates that the identified methods of the political solutions justification remained in the shade of their motivation, which was of short-term character. Thus, D. Geller, the American scientist, while his research of the global political-military problem, has made the computer analysis of 215 wars and 172 periods of transition from one war to another, which had taken place among 43 countries in 1816-1965.  He concluded that the most important determinant that conditioned the decision to enter into war was the military power of the country at that moment of time, but not the historical experience of the previous wars.

The globalist researches of the political processes demonstrate that the contemporary aggravation of the universal problems sets up in front of the governmental structures of the world society an acute necessity to use the historical experience, scientific achievements, and, in a more comprehensive sense, the tremendous knowledge accumulated by the humankind at more wide and productive extent.  This would make it possible to appropriately respond to the global challenges and, eventually, it would facilitate the growth of the political systems efficiency and improvement of the democratic situation. 

A well-known American scientist, A. Toffler, has dedicated his book “Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century” to the analysis of the above indicated issues.  The author presumes that the modern global development leads towards the formation of the new civilization, during the course of which the political power in the society will get changed significantly.  According to his opinion violence, wealth and knowledge are the most important among other “tools” of power.

The violence represents the least efficient tool of the power.  It is applied, mainly, as a form of enforcement and punishment.  Wealth is a more flexible tool of power, since it can be used both, as incentive and punishment, and it also can be transformed into another form of the influence.  The most reliable and fundamental tool of power, according to the opinion of the American globalist, is knowledge.   This tool of power makes it possible for its holder to avoid problems that can be encountered, when violence or wealth are involved.  Knowledge can be applied as means of stimulation of others to behave in such manner that would not interfere with the personal interests of the knowledge holder.  The knowledge that is applied as a political tool provides to its holder the most efficient power.

The control of knowledge is the crux of tomorrow's worldwide struggle for power in every human institution.  At the same time, the knowledge is the most democratic source of power.  In this relation A. Toffler has noted that that “unless we understand how and to whom knowledge flows, we can neither protect ourselves against the abuse of power nor create the better, more democratic society that tomorrow’s technologies promise».

The second approach to the research of the universal problematics, as it was noted before, is associated with the analysis of individual universal human problems.  The elaborations of this kind represent by themselves the constricted, specialized researches comparing to the ones considered above.  They are dedicated to the specific issues that are related to the politics in the spheres of the ecology, preservation of peace, population, energy resources; exploitation of primary resources; outer space exploration and development of the World Ocean.  The sight line of the modern global studies covers also the political aspects of the water and land resources use, provision with food and mineral resources, development of education and telecommunications, and etc.

The cross-disciplinary character of the political global studies can be seen more evidently in this kind of the researches.  For completion of such researches it is required, basing on the global world studies, to unite the attainments in political science, as well as natural and technical sciences; to combine, on the one hand, the political issues with, on the other hand, humanitarian, natural, technological and other global issues.

Currently it can be stated that the specialized political and globalist studies expand the range of the political sciences, contribute to formation of the new spheres in terms of the political science attainments, which are closely interrelated with the traditional sciences.  Thus, the French scientist, B. de Jouvenel, was one of the first scientists, who introduced the concept of the political ecology in order to identify the science of the natural resources management.  The important subject of this science consists of the studying the political methods and solutions of the global conflict between the society and the environment.  In its turn this new scientific discipline exerts and influence on the development of the traditional political science.  For instance, in their political and ecological studies the supporters of the “world government” concept tend to find new arguments for its justification.  They keep proving that the determined need for joint long-term global actions for protection of the ecosphere can be better administered when the centralized form of government is established in the world society.

The specialized political and globalist disciplines at the moment are at the stage of their formation.  However these scientific schools successfully analyse the contingency and interdependence of many specific global problems and associated political processes and events already nowadays.  Thus, the short-sighted energy and transportation policy in some countries can cause the deterioration of the environment and decrease the efficiency of the reasonable environmental policy practiced in other countries.

The erroneous demographic policy generates accidental migration of people seeking for job from their countries to other.  Wars and military conflicts constantly make the inhabitants of the involved areas to leave their homes and become refugees.  In the modern world the number of the environmental refugees progressively grows.

While considering the third approach to the political studies in the sphere of the global problematics it should be brought to the mind that it is specific for the third approach to analyse the manifestation of the universal human problems in the individual regions of the world society.  The global process takes its course rather unsteadily and incoherently. The actuality of the specific global problems in various parts of the world is unequal; therefore the problems can be shaped into various forms.  This statement can be explained by the example of the demographic problem, which, depending on the region or group of countries, can be of various nature and development dynamics.

It can be noted that on a global scale overall and in separate countries the complicated and contradictive demographic processes have been occurring in the end of the 20th – beginning of the 21St century.  They can be featured for their “blowing” growth of population in the large group of the developing countries and “negative balance” in the number of industrially developed countries [2].  The solution of the global population problem in many ways depends on the well-balanced, result-oriented and efficient demographic policy.  In the most number of the industrially developed countries the main objective of such policy is to increase the birth-rate and number of population.  While in the majority of the developing countries the main objective of the demographic policy is to control the growth of the population.  One way or another, the demographic processes have an effect on the status of the national and regional security.  The low rate of births and aging process of the population in the industrially developed countries will cause significant problems in the 21st century while manning armed forces there.  Otherwise, the developed countries will be secured on the excess of the young people capable of taking part in external and internal military conflicts.  Therefore the social and economic strain is expected in such countries, which can get aggravated with the growth of the population and cause the emergence of the above-mentioned conflicts.

The methodological and theoretical grounds for the political and globalist studies are directly formed while the application of the fourth approach to universal human problems studies out of the ones, which have been marked out before.  This process, from our point of view, is featured, at first, with cross-fertilization and interdependence of the contemporary political science and global studies.

In such a way there are the important research objectives existing, which require mutual efforts of the political scientists and globalists for their solution.  The following should be referred to such objectives: apprehension of the global problems as a factor of the global political development; analysis of the political processes globalization in the international arena under the influence of the aggravating universal human problems and some other.

The basic categories of the political science are applied in many of the globalist studies. At that the complementarity of both considered spheres of the scientific knowledge can be noted there, which facilitates consolidation of the connection between them, their integration into a new scientific school – the political global studies.  For instance, the contemporary global studies attach importance to the process of new universal values establishment and distribution, which, when applied as a landmark, help to successfully solve the global problems. 

According to the global studies specialists the values and value systems of the political nature take priority in the scale of values.  Though many of the various studies in many cases specify the following values: nations, society and entire humankind safety; freedom of activities as internally, as internationally; constructive activity of the governments; responsibility for humankind, society, nature and future generations; political pluralism; control of nationalism; information availability; manageability of the political structures and contemporary world structures.

The list of such values, which can be perceived at the crossing of the interest areas of political science and global studies, could be continued.  It also should be noted that in some instances the new data and information acquired as a result of the global problems political and globalist analysis lead to the alteration of the traditional values and value systems understanding.

Rethinking the security concept, which occurs lately, can be served as an example of such alteration.  Up until recent times the national security was considered, primarily, as a complex of reliable and secure defensive measures and political guarantees, which protected one or another country from the armed aggression.  The political and globalist studies revealed the extreme significance and acuteness of the environmental situation on the planet.  This appraisal substantially promoted the fact that the experts have started to give the priority to the environmental safety when speaking of the political values scale, though, of course, the close attention is still paid to the military and political aspects of the national security maintenance.  Currently the national security gets more often associated not only with the defence from the military threats, but also with the environmental and energy crises, population outbreak, environmental depletion, and other consequences of the global problems aggravation. 

Therefore, basing on the above-said, it can be concluded that, within the course of the political science integration with the global studies, the political categories and concepts have come into a wider use in the global problems studies, at the same time the results of the globalist studies have been taken up for the analysis of the political processes and events occurring in the modern world.  The further development of the political global studies may help to expand and enrich the range of the political sciences, as it can also give a new impetus to the further development of the global studies itself in the form of the cross-disciplinary system of attainments.  It has already become clear that the political global studies are useful for non-traditional and innovative consideration of some important issues of the international relations and global development.  The results of such studies gradually have become used successfully in the political practices.

The political global studies appears to be a new scientific direction and school in the political science, which is aimed at studying the political aspects of the universal, global problems and their connection to the system of the international relations, analysis of the specific manifestations of the global problems in various regions of the world, as well as creation of the theoretical and methodological grounds for the political and globalist researches.

 

List of References:

 

1.     I. P. Aleksandrov, Global Problems of Today, Kiev, 2011 – page 115.

2.     Updated Sociologic Dictionary, Minsk, 2010 – page 264.