Despite the end of the Cold War

Answer each of the following questions in an essay. Include specific examples that support your thesis and conclusions.

Despite the end of the Cold War, many people still worry about new threats to world peace and security. What are these threats? How has the international community dealt with them?

Discuss the green revolution and its successes. What factors have affected the spread of this agricultural revolution?

How have rights expanded globally in recent decades? What has contributed to this development?

How have multinational corporations shaped the global economy? Discuss in terms of costs and benefits, as well as the history of their development.

How has rapid economic and social change in the developing world affected women?

Answer Key

Answer would ideally include:

· The contemporary era has seen a great deal of violence: many regional and international wars were fought between 1945 and 1979 (the height of the Cold War). Although the Cold War is over, the threat of nuclear war still lingers, made more threatening by efforts of states such as North Korea and Iran to create a bomb and the detonation of nuclear devices by archrivals India and Pakistan. There have also been numerous regional disputes based on ethnic disagreements and religion. Another threat to world peace comes from al-Qaeda and affiliated organizations, of which the September 11, 2001, attacks are a prime example. The international community has attempted to deal with those threats via the United Nations, economic sanctions, and military intervention. The Iraq conflict that began in 2003 shows how nation-states acting in relation to perceived threats can still generate large-scale and bloody conflict. The ongoing and protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan bring up the question of the proper role of the United States in foreign affairs.

Answer would ideally include:

· The essay should begin with the technological breakthroughs that led to the green revolution: American development of hybrid seeds and early success in Mexico. Concerns about sustaining food supplies in the face of population increase continued to drive innovation in agriculture. Also, the development of “miracle rice” and the adaptation of the techniques of the revolution to peasant farming in Asia should be discussed. The revolution offered hope to industrializing nations, although much of the economic benefit has gone to larger landholders. The role of land ownership, especially the presence of large-scale landowners, is the critical factor in how successful the green revolution was in any one area. In countries without large capital (from either private or governmental sources), the green revolution has been less successful. Many, especially in Europe, fear the consequences of the spread of genetically engineered crops and declining biodiversity.

Answer would ideally include:

· There has been a growing focus in the United States and western Europe on liberal individual freedoms since the 1960s. A global gay rights movement began in the 1970s and intensified with the AIDS epidemic. The movement broadened in the 1990s into concerns about discrimination in employment, education, and public life, and campaigns to legalize gay marriage have succeeded across the West and beyond in recent years. The women’s struggle for equality and for progress on other issues of critical concern to women has advanced at different rates but is an important priority for the United Nations. Concerns about poverty and its effects on women and workplace equality reflect the reality that globally the social class of women often affects their access to equal opportunity. Children’s rights campaigners have also made progress in the United Nations, and campaigners are particularly focused on addressing poverty as it affects children.

Answer would ideally include:

· Multinational corporations emerged rapidly from the 1950s. The definition of multinational corporations should be included. Emphasize that they have an international rather than a national focus on their business. By 1971, they accounted for one-fifth of the noncommunist world’s annual income, and they are increasing in economic importance. Spread of capitalism, industrialization, and global capital markets all contributed, and there were advantages to being able to manipulate national controls in relation to various aspects of the business. Products and consumer practices are more easily spread globally, and developing countries are more thoroughly integrated into the global marketplace. Monopolies are encouraged. Some critics associate the multinational corporations with neocolonialism. Multinationals support and benefit from economic liberalization, and they also help to encourage national markets to be more open. They have contributed to economic volatility and may intensify recessions. Multinational corporations complicate and limit the utility of national economic policymaking.

Answer would ideally include:

· Out-migration has emptied many rural African villages of men, which has forced rural women to take over the position of head of household. African women have become more independent as a result. Also, in Latin America, many young women have found urban work in manufacturing or domestic service. Less positively, women make up the majority of the world’s poor, a trend that is called the feminization of poverty. Women in many developing countries still lack political and economic rights. Increased birth control options have not reduced the birth rate for poor females, especially adolescents. This problem is intensified by an increase in sex trafficking involving women.