In what ways has the post-Cold War economic globalization expose Essay

In what ways has the post-Cold War economic globalization expose workers, consumers and countries to new insecurities and how can the risks associated with process be managed - Essay Example The Cold War, after all, albeit essentially a geopolitical divide spawned a great economic divide between two blocs that characterised the world set up since the end of the World War II until the late 1980s. Since the divide did not confine itself between the then two superpowers but spread throughout Europe, Asia Africa and Latin America the ensuing economic split was extensive and thorough throughout the globe. Economic competition was all-consuming between the two blocs and the trade between them and their allies was virtually reduced to barter and countertrade. Internal trade within each bloc however, grew during the Cold War as represented by such pacts and agreements as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) for the US bloc and the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) for the Soviet bloc (Aldonas 2009 29-30). With the end of the Cold War, economic changes far and wide ensued. Gone were the restrictions and barriers that characterized the economic and trade relations between countries belonging to the respective Soviet and US blocs. More significantly, it freed up the economic resources that were previously used to fund the excessive manufacture of weapons and armaments on both sides. Trade liberalisation unfettered by ideological constraints brought China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and saw the latter’s rise and emergence, along with India, as the new economic superpowers. The new economic freedom facilitated world economic growth that reached a new height in 2004 at 3.8 per cent, an economic development that exemplified the rapid economic growth that outpaced that of the last three decades combined (Aldonas 2009 29). Yet, along with the unprecedented rapid economic growth, the unification of the world market or globalisation in the post-Cold War