6.2.3 Read the text again to answer the following questions.

1) How many member countries are there in Interpol?

2) When and why was Interpol established?

3) What is Interpol’s mission (function)?

4) What categories of criminals does Interpol deal with?

5) What is the operational element of Interpol?

6) Is Interpol an intergovernmental organization?

7) What are its main bodies?

8) What is Interpol’s supreme governing body (its functions and composition)?

9) What are the functions and composition of the Executive Committee? Who is Interpol’s current President?

10) What body is Interpol’s business division? Who is it headed by? What departments does it consist of?

11) Why is Interpol one of the highly respected groups in the world?

6.3. Globalization

6.3.1 Study these words before reading the text.

globalization – глобализация

exchange – обмен

to intertwine – сплетать, переплетать

to argue – утверждать, приводить доводы

assets – активы

institution – учреждение, организация

to contend – утверждать, заявлять, настаивать

diversity – разнообразие

to supplant – вытеснять (что-либо), выживать (кого-либо), занимать чье-либо место

hybridization – гибридизация, скрещивание

assimilation – ассимиляция, уподобление

Sinisization – китаизация

to sinicize – китаизировать

Sinicism - китаизм

WTO (World Trade Organization) – Всемирная Торговая Организация

OPEK (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) – Организация стран экспортеров нефти

IMF (International Monetary Fund) – Международный Валютный Фонд

to eliminate – уничтожать, ликвидировать

to dissolve – разрушать, ликвидировать, уничтожать

emergence – появление, проявление

to contest - оспаривать

6.3.2 Read and translate the text.

Globalization refers to a worldwide phenomenon of technological, economic, political and cultural exchanges. These exchanges have been brought about by modern communication, transportation, legal infrastructure and political choice to open cross-border links in international trade and finance. Globalization is a term which describes how human beings are becoming more intertwined with each other around the world economically, politically and culturally.

The economic aspects stressed in globalization are free trade, investment and migration. The globalization of trade allows human beings to have greater access to a wide range of goods and services – from German cars to Columbian coffee, from Chinese clothing to Egyptian cotton, from American music to Indian software. However, critics of free trade argue that it may lead to the destruction of a country’s native industry, environment and/or a loss of jobs.

The globalization of investment takes place through foreign direct investment, where multinational companies directly invest assets in a foreign country; or by indirect investment where individuals and institutions buy and sell financial assets of other countries. Critics of international investment contend that by accepting these financial schemes a country loses its economic sovereignty and may be forced to set policies that are contrary to its citizens’ interests. Moreover, multinational companies that invest in a country may acquire too much political and economic power in relation to its citizens.

Finally, free migration allows individuals to find employment in countries where there are labor shortages. But it may lead to the exploitation of workers from a host country.

In its cultural form, globalization has been identified with greater international cultural exchange; greater international tourism and travel; greater immigration, including illegal immigration; spreading of multiculturalism and better individual access to cultural diversity, for example through spread of local foods such as pizza and Japanese food, or through the export of Hollywood movies. The imported culture, however, can easily supplant the local culture, causing reduction in diversity through hybridization or even assimilation. The most prominent form of this is Westernization, but Sinicization of cultures also takes place.

As is seen above, globalization has become identified with a number of trends which include greater international movement of commodities, money, information, and people on the one hand, and the development of technology, organizations, legal systems, and infrastructures that allow this movement on the other. These include:

– creation and increased role of such international organizations as WTO (World Trade Organization), OPEK (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), IMF (International Monetary Fund).

– development of a global telecommunications infrastructure using such technologies as Internet, communication satellites and telephones;

– increase in the number of standards applied globally, for example, copyright laws and patents;

– formation and development of a set of international values (the UDHR);

– the push by many lawyers for international justice movements (International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice);

– the global distribution of media images that appear on our computer screens, in newspapers, television and radio.

There is much academic debate about whether globalization is a real phenomenon or only an analytical artifact (a myth). Some authors prefer the term internationalization rather than globalization. In internationalization the role of the state and nations is greater, while globalization in its complete form eliminates national states. So, they argue that the frontiers of countries are far from being dissolved, and therefore this globalization process is not happening, considering that in world history, internationalization never turned into globalization (the European Union and NAFTA).

To sum up, the emergence of a global movement is indisputable and therefore we can speak of a real process towards a global human society of societies. Some authors state that we are in transition to a planetary phase of civilization; others think of the formation of a global village – closer contact between different parts of the world, with increasing possibilities of personal exchange, mutual understanding and friendship between ‘world citizens’, and creation of a global civilization. However, the exact form and character of the global society is contested and will be determined by the choices we make in the critical decades ahead.