The End of the Cold War

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The end of the Cold War brought about the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, paving the way for an unprecedented new paradigm – one characterised by the end of hostilities between the two dominant ideologies: Soviet communism and American liberal capitalism. This dominant new paradigm encouraged the homogenisation of ideas, in the form of exchanging ethos and values along former cultural, ideological and geographical divides. As such, this integration of world societies has earned the title ‘globalisation’, forcing the global community to appear so united as to warrant the metaphor of a global village. (Note: This paragraph pains me to read – I will eventually re-write it.) Few contemporary phenomena elicit such academic and political controversy as globalisation. The term, although ubiquitous, has lost precision due to its dependency on its shifting socio-political and cultural concerns (Asgary, 2002). Indeed, the term itself is so intricately woven into contemporary ideological spheres, that its definition demands periodic scholar¬ly reassessment. Echoing contemporary philosophy, prominent sociologist Manfred Steger defines globalisation as ‘a multidimensional set of social processes that create, multiply, stretch, and intensify worldwide social interdependencies and exchanges while at the same time fostering in people a growing awareness of deepening connections between the local and the distant’ (Sterger, 2005, p.13). Despite Sterger’s optimism, globalisation – in its primal literary sense – is purely a euphemism for western cultural and linguistic imperialism. Indeed, globalisation, as the apparent integration of global cultures, exists along with its imperialist antithesis: the prevalence of fragmentation in many area... ... middle of paper ... ...g, propagating and intensifying exigencies of Western cultural and linguistic imperialism. Indeed, these studies do not appeal to the preservation of ‘pure’ national cultures or particular national identities, so much as a broader appeal to basic human egalitarianism and to the profound social importance of providing individuals and groups with an equal opportunity to create their own identities, practices, and forms of expression (Heinrich, 2001). Generally, two conflicting paradigms ignite the debate on globalisation: as a form of integration and as form imperialism. The former encourages the spread of a homogenous set of values, norms and behaviours, allowing individuals to interact with one another, regardless of disparities; the latter sees globalisation in its true form – a vehicle for coercive Western homogenisation at the expense of marginalised cultures.

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