Globalization\'s Effect on the United States National Security

Globalization's Effect on the United States'

National Security

Objective of this paper is to explore the impact of globalization on the United States national security. The study defines globalization as the increasing global relations of people, corporate organization and government. There is no doubt that the globalization provides numerous benefits to the American economy. Despite the benefits derived from the globalization, the advent of globalization also provides some threats to the United States.

The study also reviews the previous literatures on globalization and identifies various effects of globalization on the U.S. national security. The study identifies the incidents of terrorist attack on American soil. The increase in the influx of illegal immigrants has also become serious security concern to some states in the U.S. The review of the literatures suggests various strategies that the U.S. should employ to safeguard the country national security.

The study provides data analysis and interpretation & findings. The study suggests that the U.S. needs to implement national security measure with caution. There is an evident that the United States derives net gain from globalization. In implementing the national security measures, the United States should balance the national security measure with the benefits derived from globalization.

Introduction

The United States has long enjoyed the status of global power because of the country exerts immense economic and political influence globally. Since the end the Second World War, the U.S. has proved to be a dominant super power in term of economic, military, technological and scientific affairs. The U.S. has also successfully achieved a leadership role in technological development through its breakthrough in the information and communication technology (ICT). More importantly, the United has the largest economy in the world with the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) reaching approximately $14 Trillion in 2010 (See Table 1), and its economic development is ahead of the economy of all the countries of OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). The country not only enjoys the economy supremacy, the country has also established the political supremacy globally because many former communist countries have finally adopted the free market economic system. The extent of the U.S. powers was revealed when the country defied the UN and declared a war on Afghanistan and Iraq.

Advent of globalization has been one of the forces that make the United States to enjoy both political and economic influence over several nations. There have been an argument that globalization has major economic, political, social and strategic impacts on the United States. However, the negative impacts that the globalization brings on the U.S. economic and political landscape have become the national security concern for the United States. In the United States, there is influx of illegal immigrants, and it is estimated that there are more than 12 million immigrants in the United States. Under federal law, all states are obliged to provide some essential services to illegal immigrants, which include emergence medical service and public education. However, many states defy federal law by severely dealing with illegal immigrants. It is believed that increase in the number of illegal immigrants contributes to the social security problems in the United States. Typically, more than 30 states have already passed different laws to combat illegal immigrants. Many states in the United States believe that influx of illegal immigrants have contributed to the high unemployment rate. The threat of terrorism has also been another security concern to the U.S. government. Typically, the U.S. is a top country that has always been the target of attacks from the terrorists groups. On many occasions, the U.S. embassies around the world have been under the terrorist attacks, and the issue has made different U.S. governments to vehemently pursue war on terror. However, sequence of attack on U.S. On September 11 has been a major factor that makes the U.S. government to make national security concern as the major domestic and foreign policy. (Datamonitor, 2011).

Current rising of unemployment and corresponding increase in the social tension have also made the U.S. population to increasingly critical about the U.S. international politics. On several occasions, the intrusion of the U.S. government on domestic affairs of other countries has brought about the spread of anti-U.S. from some certain terrorist group, which often results in the attack of the U.S. national territorial integrity. Typically, the issue is threatening the U.S. national security. More importantly, the U.S. boasts on its ability to provide social security system for its citizen, however, the country is currently experiencing high unemployment rate and increase in the aging population. Data from the U.S. census reveal that half of the U.S. population is above 36.7 years old. The scenario makes the U.S. To face the risks of slower growth rate and serious labor shortage in the near future. The increase in the aging group will make more people to put a substantial pressure on government finance since social security benefits constitutes 90% of the income of the one-third of the U.S. population. (Datamonitor, 2011).

Fundamental objective of this thesis is to explore the effect of globalization on the United States National Security. The paper reviews the previous studies to enhance greater understanding on the impact of globalization on the U.S. national security.

Literature Review

This section reviews the previous studies on globalization. The study also explores both positive and negative effects of globalization on the United States. The study further demonstrates the effects of globalization on the national security concern of the United States, and the measures to safeguard the country territorial integrity by implementing a stricter national security measure. The study also explores other issues such as unemployment rate, and the declining level of education of U.S. population, which also constitute the national security concern.

Overview of the concept Globalization

Theodore Levit first used the concept globalization in 1965 that identified the vast change that took place within the international political economy. His argument shows that inter-relation of nation states has led to the economic and financial liberations of states. (Wahab, Shahbudin Abdul, 2002). Globalization refers to the increasing global interrelationship of economic, cultural and social activity. (Bhagwati, 2004, Rowman, 2004).

"Globalization provides individual national economies the means to create economic webs with other countries through the integration of markets and the unification of transportation and communication system. This process has effects on culture, political systems, economic development, and prosperity in societies around the world." (Travalini, 2009 P. 779).

Rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT) has assisted in making the world a global village where it is now possible to communicate and transact business without moving out of the country. With recent advent of internet technology, a country national boundary is no more a barrier to communicate and transact business around the globe. Globalization has led to the increasingly opening up of economies and country's national boundary, and these lead to the increase of transfer of capital, spread of information and ideas, and spread of knowledge & technology from one geographical region to the other. Typically, globalization has created a consolidated unified economy, which intensifies worldwide social relations. (Krishnan, 2009).

With reference to the impact of globalization on the political system, political action or decision of a country could have significant repercussions on other part of the world. Globalization has created the chain of political, economic and social interdependence. While globalization has assisted in the inter-linkages of people around the world, the globalization has also served as source of national security threats. State security is very critical for a state survival. A key aspect of state security is the ability to provide national security that may not be challenged by the current advent of globalization. Provision of national security is based on the ability of a state to protect its citizens from harm. However, ability of a state to provide effective national security has been challenged by the advent of globalization.

Different authors view the effect of globalization on nation state differently. Ripsman et al. argue that globalization has weakened the state's national security through the impact of the powerful social forces. Over the years, these forces have manifested into several forms which include the rise of international actors, proliferation of non-traditional security challenges which include transnational terrorism, and rise of non-state actors such as multinational organizations. United States is the most liberal countries in the world. Over the years, the United States has opened its national borders to enhance the influx of people from the different part of the world. More importantly, the United States is the leader in the application of technology for the betterment of population, and the country has used its technology to link other part of the world. However, rapid development of technology has undermined the state security of the United States. The United States is the most liberal country in the world. The country opens its national boundary to the influx of people, foreign direct investment and free exchange of information and communication. In the contemporary international economic systems, modern economies depend on the resources of foreign countries to achieve economic growth. The United States has been a leader in encouraging the cross-border deals for the advancement of domestic opportunities. While there are numerous opportunities to derive from the inter-relations of business opportunities with other countries, the United States often faces fundamental challenges in balancing the interest of the national security with the national economy. The September 11, 2001 attack has made the United States to implement stricter control in the foreign direct transaction. (Travalini, 2009).

The review of the literatures explores the impact of globalization on the security of the United States to enhanced greater understanding on steps that the country will take to enhance its national security.

Effect of Globalization on the National Security of the United States

The United States has experienced both positive and negative impact from the advent of globalization. Typically, globalization has allowed the U.S. To open their economies to enjoy the benefits of foreign trade. Through development of societal norm, globalization has allowed many small companies in the United States, which are unable to compete successfully in the domestic market to secure market for their products at international markets. With the rapid development of internet technology, it is possible to transact business online with other countries around the globe and export the goods and services produced within the United States to other countries. U.S. has the largest online retailers in the world, which account for almost 40% of the global sales. While other countries have not exploited the benefits of internet business, the United States has already exploited the online business to its advantages. In 2009, the U.S. online retail sector reached approximately $134.9 billion.

Added advantages that the United States is enjoying from the globalization are that the country has been able to have access to the pool of skilled workforce around the globe, which leads to the increase in the global cooperation. While the United States has largest number of post-secondary educational system in the world, more than half of workers in the United States do not have post-secondary degree certificates. Meanwhile, many employers often rely on foreign skilled workforce to boost productivity. (Datamonitor, 2011). Globalization has also assisted many corporate organizations across the United States to lower their costs of operations thereby enjoying super normal profits. Typically, many companies in the United States outsource part of their services to other countries, which offer lower price for their services. By opening up cross-border cooperation and use internet technology to transact business, many corporate organizations have been able to record super normal profits at the end of the fiscal year.

More importantly, globalization allows many corporate organizations in the United States to raise foreign capital. It is now possible for foreign individuals or foreign corporate organizations to buy shares or bonds of the U.S. companies, and this allows many corporate organizations to raise foreign fund to enhance their business operations. Report provided by Datamonitor (2011) also reveals that the U.S. is the largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the world, and largest foreign direct investor globally. Large inflow of foreign investment has assisted the United States to enjoy economic growth, which is higher than other developed nations around the world. Typically, the stock of foreign direct investment into the United States increased from $2.4 Trillion in 2009 to $2.5 Trillion in 2010 and the stock of U.S. investment abroad increased from $3.4 Trillion in 2009 to $3.6 Trillion in 2010. Similarly, globalization has significant impact on the United States educational system. Many college and universities are now providing online education to increase their revenue. Many educational institutions have taken the advantages of globalization to offer course online to students around the world. The United States has been able to surpass other countries with reference to online education because the United States has an efficient educational system and quality of the U.S. educational system is ranked as the best in the world. The standard of the U.S. educational system has assisted the country to record largest enrollment of online students around the world.

Despite the benefits that the United States is enjoying from the advent of globalization, there are still mixed opinion on whether the benefits derived from the globalization actual outweighs the negative impact. Worden and Freese (2003) argue that globalization has been a source of threat to the national security standard of the United States. From the economic perspective, foreign direct investment increases the prevalence of acquisitions of the U.S. companies by foreign investors. Typically, the issue has made a significant number of the U.S. companies to be controlled by foreign individuals or foreign government. Moreover, globalization allows foreign governments to weaken the economic and social structure of the United States. The continuous of opening of the U.S. border to foreign trades and flow of human capital facilitates unethical practice such as terrorism, drug trafficking, and child kidnapping. Thus, balancing the desire of globalization with the national security has proven challenging for many nation states. In the United States, the global transaction has threatened national security. However, the prevalence of the country high unemployment rates necessitates the considerations to attract foreign investment and the issue needs to be taking into national security consideration. While foreign investments bring investment opportunities into the United States, however, allowing foreign investments opportunity into the United States without implementing necessary control increases the possibilities for the illegitimate and malicious foreign investments in the United States as well as acquisitions and large mergers. Typically, foreign ownerships of American corporate organizations provide the opportunity for the parent company to be present in the United States. The issues could raise a national security concern if the purchasing country's interest is different from the U.S. economic objective. Thus, it is imperative for the United States government to put a control in place to limit the malicious foreign investment. Meanwhile, there has been a growing resentment among population on the continuous liberation of trade and globalization. The resentment is to decline the off-shoring services and raise protective barriers against foreign trade. It is also widely believed that outsourcing has widely led to the disparity between the income of skilled and unskilled labor. Typically, outsourcing has generally depressed the income of low skilled workers. A handful of states such as Indiana, North Carolina, Michigan, and New Jersey have already passed anti-outsourcing law. Federal government also passed anti-outsourcing law in 2004 barring corporate organizations from engaging in sub-contract with low cost nations.

More U.S. national security concern is the growing incident of terrorist attack globally. In the contemporary international system, nation states are losing ground against terrorism. Many terrorist groups are increasingly hostile to the United States because there is a general believe that the United States is increasingly interfering in the internal affairs of other states. Worden et al. argues that while globalization has increased the network of integration among people and organization, however, the globalization has diminished the units of identification. The globalization has led to the encroachment on the security of the United States. With serious threats on the territorial integrity of the nation states, the need to strengthen the national security of the U.S. becomes evident. Over the years, the United States has been under the threats of terrorist attack making the United States to become the top terrorists' target. (Datamonitor, 2011). On several occasions, the United States embassies at different part of the world have come under severe terrorist attack. "The dark side of this globalized world came to the forefront for the American people on September 11, 2001." (White House, 2010 P. 1). The issue made Bush regime to vehemently seek for the cooperation of European governments to combat terrorist attack. Worden and Freeze argue that globalization assists the terrorists to have capability to encroach on the national security of the United States.

The rapid development of information technology and advancement of telecommunication has also made many non-state actors to attack the United States from global space. For instance, there was an electronic attack on the United State in 2002 that crippled 13 important servers, which were critical to the internet connection. Many individuals and group also perpetuate cyber-terrorism on the United States. Some individuals have taken the advantages of fast internet connection to attack the server of several organizations in the United States and steal sensitive information. Perpetuators often use free WI-FI internet at hotels and coffee shop to intercept, and modify communication-taking place between business organizations. This attack is possible because many WI-FI spots have limited security or provide no security for their network. Typically, some hackers often open WI-FI spots and mount a "man in the middle" to obtain valid passwords and the usernames of the people using their networks. Attackers often use this technique to gain access the corporate computer systems. The attack often targets the corporate organizations in the United States to gain access to confidential information. With advance in the development of information communication technology, it is possible to remotely gain access to the corporate computer system. Such attack could also be used to defeat the security of encrypted network traffic. The negative impacts of globalization make President Obama to implement the National Security Strategy for the first time on May 2010 to address the national security issues.

National Security Strategy for the United States

Negative effects of globalization have made Obama government to implement the national security strategy to protect the country territorial integrity. President Obama reveals in its statement at White House, (2010).

"National security draws on the strength and resilience of our citizens, communities, and economy. This includes a determination to prevent terrorist attacks against the American people by fully coordinating the actions that we take abroad with the actions and precautions that we take at home. It must also include a commitment to building a more secure and resilient nation, while maintaining open flows of goods and people." (P 10).

One of the strategies that the United States decides to implement to strengthen the country national security is to maintain the U.S. conventional military superiority as well as maintaining the stock of nuclear weapon to serve as deterrent. Typically, U.S. needs to maintain the stock of nuclear weapons to defeat asymmetric threats that might come from rouge states and group of non-state actors. The National Security Strategy approach released on May 2010 is to advance the American interest, which include providing security for the U.S. economy and address international order that can become a challenge to the U.S. national interests. Other method to strengthen the U.S. national security is to pursue a comprehensive nonproliferation of nuclear security agenda. The U.S. is strengthening Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to protect American people from nuclear attack. The United States also decides to increasingly relying on its nuclear weapon arsenal as a deterrent. More importantly, the United States should build its economic strength to balance its sustainable growth with global prosperity. As part of the national security strategy, U.S. is focusing on the G-20 to enhance international economic cooperation in order to export more of American products. The United States needs to strengthen its military capability to deter threats against the United States and counter terrorist attacks.

Moreover, the United States needs to strengthen its economic institutions to achieve sustainable growth. Similar to other nations, U.S. depends on the markets of other countries to sell its products as well as maintaining access to scarce resources. Thus, the U.S. needs to increase its cooperation with other nations to strengthen its economic power. The U.S. needs to enhance home security by protecting the nation's critical infrastructure and securing cyberspace.

As part of the national security strategy, the United States should also strengthen the human capital and education. The country leadership position relies on the ability to provide citizens the necessary education to make them succeed. Typically, education provides people with skills that they need to compete in the job market. The United States need to improve its education at all level because the U.S. has already lost ground in education because half of workers in the United States do not have post-secondary education. The issue is making the United States to lag behind the other OECD nation with reference to education. Data in the appendix 2 reveal that the United States is lagging behind many OECD countries in technology, science, and mathematics education. Recent United Nation (UN) Human Development index reveals that the U.S. is ranked below Norway, New Zealand and Austria. Thus, complete and competitive education is critical for all Americans to improve their standard of living. Higher education serves as an engine for economic growth. The U.S. government needs to assist Americans to attain higher education to improve their skills and economic growth. American ability to restore its leadership role in education depends on the ability to invest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education (STEM).The strategy will assist the U.S. citizens to thrive in the global economy.

Additionally, the United States should deter threats from the country international financial system. Some non-state actors are abusing the global financial system to raise and move funds to implement the illicit activities. The strategic the United States could use to attack this act is to target their illicit activities and enforce regulatory authorities to maintain sanity in the country international financial institutions.

Summary

The study reviews the previous literatures on globalization and its effects on the U.S. national security. The study identifies several positive impacts that the globalization has brought to the U.S. economic system. The inflow of foreign capital is one of the benefits that the country derives from globalization. Despite the benefits that the country derives from globalization, there are still negative effects that globalization brings to the American soil which has become a serious national security issue. The study suggests that the U.S. needs to maintain the stock of nuclear weapons to serve as deterrent. More importantly, the U.S. needs to implement solution to offer employment opportunity for its citizens.

Data analysis is critical to ensure the validity and reliability of data used to prepare the study.

Analysis

The goal of data analysis is to inspect, clean, transform and model the data. The study analyzes the data to enhance the integrity, validity and reliability of the study. The study collects data through secondary research. One of the methods used to source for data is by searching the electronic database. The study sources for data from electronic database such as Science Direct, EBSCOhost research database, and Emerald Insight database. These electronic database store high quality electronic journals and research articles that could be used to prepare the research papers. The paper uses qualitative analysis to interpret words and text lifted from these journal articles. To access reliable data for this study, the paper only searches for the research topics from the electronic database and reviews only the research articles relevant to the study. (Tabachnick, & Fidell, 2007). There are several reasons for using secondary data for the study. First, the secondary data are easy to collect since large part of the secondary data is readily available in the electronic database. Moreover, secondary data are cost-effective and very fast to collect. Several procedures are used for analysis. First, the paper uses data cleaning. The data cleaning involves inspecting and removing the erroneous data to enhance data validity. Additionally, the paper uses the concept map to search for concepts relevant to the study. Some of the concepts that the study uses to search for data are globalization, national security, terrorism, U.S. economy, U.S. educational system, national security strategy, immigration, and other concepts relevant to the study. These concepts are used to search for relevant data from the electronic database. More importantly, the study searches for data from the quality journals. To enhance the quality of the data used to prepare the study, the paper only handpicked the quality journals to prepare the study. Based on the analysis, the study has been able to reach conclusion validity. (Trochim, and Donnelly, 2007).