Globalization

I.  The Bretton Woods System (established 1944)

A. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

B.  Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs)

II.  The World Trade Organization (WTO)

III.  Results of Globalization

A. North versus South

B. Labor problems.  Maquiladores:  U.S.-owned export factories in Mexico.

C.  Debt

D.  Media Monopolies

Clear Channel Communications owns over 1200 radio stations in the U.S. They organized rallies in support of the Iraq war, and many believe that they ordered their stations to stop playing Dixie Chicks songs after lead singer Natalie Maines criticized President Bush.

E. Monoculture

IV.  Global economy versus local economies

The Consumer Economy

I.  Overproduction in the postindustrial world

II.  The advertising industry

A.  Early advertising techniques

B.  The expansion of advertising

 

C.  Advertising's changing goals

III.  Problems of the consumer economy

A.  Advertising and the decline of working class politics

B.  Health problems

C.  Ads in the classroom

D.  Depletion of natural resources

 

IV.  Resisting the consumer economy

The Political Economy of Terrorism

I.  Historical origins of terrorism

 

A.  Israel and Palestine.

West Bank and Gaza Strip.

B.  The U.S. and Saudi Arabia

World oil reserves.

Wahhabi: Radical, anti-Western form of Islam, supported by Saudi royal family.

C.  The Cold War:  U.S. support for Osama bin Laden.

Mujahedeen:  Islamic "holy warriors" who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

II.  Political Economy of the "War on Terrorism"

A.  The war in Afghanistan

B.  Iraq

C.  A permanent mobilization?