How do national and international factors interact in empowering some states of the Global South to make more progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals than other states?
I believe that the reason why some national and international factors interact in empowering some states more than other’s because some states are at liberty to attempt to better themselves compared to those who are having political and military control issues. But even those who are struggling with horrific governmental control situations are still doing everything to better themselves as states. First and foremost, I would like to comment and say that I was very impressed at the podcasts that I was able to listen to. I truly enjoyed comparing their techniques and strategies to my own groups and was quite interested in their topics. I found these projects to be a quick and easy way to gain much new and essential knowledge in the realm of international relations.
The first country that I would like to discuss to support my analysis is Algeria. Algeria is a perfect example of one of the countries in which their international and national factors empower it more than other states. Algeria was initially a colony and because of this nationally, one finds the problems to be that it is comprised of a weak democratic institution trapped under military control, terrorism, and an extremely slow state economy over reliant on the exportation of oil. Algeria has faced troubles with terrorist groups especially during the time of the Algerian civil war. Since then, terrorism has lightened. However, the fact that it is an international factor that causes many countries to rely on alliances and countries to support them. This is where interdependence, the concept that continues to be relevant in class shows up. To additionally intertwine another blog post I listened to what I found unfortunate when it came to Egypt’s attempt to advance SGD 16, their conditions from what I gathered comparing the two based on the podcasts, seem to be more challenging. This is due to the more severely centralized dominant military government and chronic debt causes countries for it to be much more difficult to reach any goals. But since they have looked to the United States and Israel for help, their conditions have been more stable. Referring back to Algeria, in the face of internal and external military challenges the “power” had made itself known to be the guardian of the state so that elections are more like selection which created corruption. Legitimacy in this country is derived not from elections but natural resources these means that there are few incentives for political accountability. When concerning national factors in its progress towards SDG’s first one must consider that Algeria is a resource rich country its oil and natural gas reserves account for 93% product exports 19% GDP domestic consumption of oil and gas. Once other countries began to focus on domestic oil and fuel sources they were exporting less, and revenue dropped. The young population with a positive and optimistic mentality towards change shows light at the end of the tunnel. Because of national adjustments such as the 2021 government action plan, Algeria’s economy hopes that by better judgement with public spending, import reduction, a boosting non hydrocarbon exports will help aid in letting go of their dependence of their oil and gas industry. In this sense international trade and business is the driving fuel in their economic aspirations.
2 responses to “SDG Reflection Post”
I want to begin by thanking you for this very informative and insightful blog, as the topic of the Global South has been a topic that has been highly discussed, especially this semester at our university and in my international organizations course.
You begin your discussion by saying that states have a choice in some way to actually better themselves, and I highly agree with that as we see the many differences in outcomes due to domestic and international aspects. The SDGs, for example, indeed showed how even when some countries are considered weak or do not pay very much attention, they are trying their best to achieve those goals for a better and sustainable future.
Moreover, Algeria is a very interesting case and was part of my imperialism discussion this week as we talked about the colonial legacies that France left Algeria to deal with politically, economically, and socially, and we see that international factors can somewhat help or maybe increase issues for example with Egypt’s debts we see an international element like the IMF both helping yet also increasing dependency for Egypt.
In the case of Algeria, does this dependency on exporting gas resources weaken its economic and political stance?
Yes, I do believe it does very much so. After listening to the podcast on Algeria, that was the the main theme that I was able to take away from the countries conditions. Because if you think about it, when a state is completely dependent on one industry if an unexpected occurrence becomes a reality, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, that state will not have a “Plan B” to fall back on. Not having a back-up plan is risky in any sense because it puts the economy at political and economic risk. That is why Algeria is putting forth efforts to ensure that there will be no hardships again. By focusing on other economic ways to support themselves it will definitely avoid crisis and create a safety net to rely on.