11.6 Globalization and Today's Challenges

Notes

Since 1991, the world has become more connected through globalization, the growing exchange of goods, money, people, ideas and culture.

• Trade groups and agreements: the European Union (named in 1993) and the World Trade Organization (1995).
• Technology: computers, the internet, mobile phones and social media spread information and connect economies.
• Rising economies, especially China and India, lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty, while inequality remained.
• Conflicts and human rights: the Rwandan Genocide (1994) killed about 800,000 people, mostly Tutsi; ethnic wars followed the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
• Terrorism: the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. led to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Global challenges: climate change, pandemics such as COVID-19 (2020), migration and refugee crises. Agreements like the Paris Agreement (2015) try to address climate change.