The three worldviews governing international relations are: the system maintainer, system reformer and the system transformer. First, the system maintainer perspective is associated with strong political orientation. Critical in this worldview is the emergence of newly industrialized countries, which can pose a threat to the current dominance of US hegemony. This emergence might cause a chaotic relationship in the international system.
Given that those states who incorporates this view is anarchic in quality, the challenge that the system maintainer perspective may encounter is the probable resistance of some of the states in the internationalization trends. Another challenge for this worldview, is centered on its assumption that a state must be military equipped and superior, as this point has over the years gained negative feedbacks from the public. Until now, there are growing discontentment on the US pursuit for extra military power and its continuing involvement in wars. The second worldview is the system reformer. Critical in this worldview is its utopian character rather than being realist. The challenges posted to this worldview are towards really solidifying rival nations and create policies that shall manage conflicts in the global political arena and ensure equality among the rich and the poor. Another is the probability of linking nations to cooperate for the pursuit of common interests has always been questionable and it has never occurred in the past that nations work together for common interest, but rather for the benefit of their personal goals. The third world view is the system transformer. Critical in this worldview is its difficulty to assess if there are countries who can play the role of being a system transformer in its altruistic sense rather than being a fake. The challenges that this worldview faces is with regards to its little popularity in the global arena particularly in the US. Somehow, cooperation seems less appealing to the people and favors more an arms race to ensure political and economic stability through military supremacy. Another challenge is that, as this view works to save the Third World from conflicts, it is the case that Third World countries would always seem to favor being associated with First World countries even it would be detrimental to their economy because these underdeveloped countries would tend to seek for protection.
The increasing popularity of internet as a means of globalization has widely affected the promotion of loyalty and maintenance of national identity. The advent of internet popularity has been used to manipulate and extract information that although some would serve useful to others, may mean detrimental to a nation’s culture. The discontentment of France for example towards the published articles and auctioned items in the internet which were vital to their historic heritage is a proof how can internet be used as an agent of cultural loyalty or disloyalty. The internet as it can be accessed by anyone, anywhere in the world is one of the most powerful tool in shaping the identity of an individual.
The inability to restrict the information that can be shown in the internet may serve dangerous to others. Although there are facts that are to be well-gathered and disseminated, cultural relativism must always be employed. Restriction policy based on the cultural importance of certain facts must be properly guided. If a content of a certain article or feature can promote discontent or disillusionment towards the cultural membership of the people, they must be restricted from access or at least be regulated. Political culture plays a big role in the undertaking of this regulation. The politics of culture dictates which of the facts are detrimental to their culture or which of those can promote their identity and heritage, thus they can influence which of those should be restricted from access. Though, it must also be ensured that the facts stated will also render truthful information and shall not be biased towards other criticisms.
Works Cited
- Lamy, Steven L. Challenging Hegemonic Paradigms and Practices: Critical Thinking and Active Learning Strategies for International Relations. October 8, 2007 http://www.apsanet.org/imgtest/Lamy_APSA_2006.pdf
- Lamy, Steven L. ed. “US Perspectives on the Soviet Union.” Contemporary International Issues. 1988.