Ex. 17. Translate the sentences into English

1. Термин 'раздел стран мира на Север^Юг (the North-South divide)' является не географическим, а концептуальным.

2. Идея о том, что глобальная экономика выступает за (is biased in favour of) сотрудничество и гармонизацию, очень спорная.

3. Международная торговля, например, всегда являлась ис­точником (to generate) напряженности и конфликтов.

4. Исторически за свободную торговлю всегда выступали экономически доминирующие державы, которые не боятся иностранной конкуренции.

5. Транснациональные корпорации заметно изменили эконо­мический баланс сил, лишив национальные правительства и местные общины какого-либо влияния.

6. Экономическая глобализация часто означает подчинение (subordination to) национальных правительств 'власти рын­ка' транснациональных корпораций.

7. Это делает особенно уязвимыми (to make sb vulnerable) раз­вивающиеся страны, которые являются для этих корпора^ ций источником дешевой рабочей силы и низких произ­водственных затрат (production costs), не имея при этом возможности обязать (to oblige) их делать долгосрочные ка­питаловложения.

8. Идею экономического суверенитета сейчас уже можно вы­бросить на свалку истории (to consign to the dustbin of history). Однако глобализация ставит своей целью измене­ние приоритетов в экономической политике, а не превра­щение ее в ненужную деятельность (to make sth. redundant).

Text 2: Towards world government PRE-READING activity:

♦ Learn the topical vocabulary and word combinations

VOCABULARY:

1. to facilitate v - облегчать, продвигать; facility n - легкость, покладистость, способность; (pi.) - возможности, благо­приятные условия; phr - facilities for concluding treaties -условия для заключения договоров.

2. to pursue v - преследовать, гнаться, следовать (по плану); phr - to pursue a policy — проводить политику; to pursue one's interests - преследовать (свои) интересы; pursuer n -преследующий, pursuit n - преследование, погоня; in pursuit of — в поисках, в погоне за.

3. to embody v - воплощать (в себе), олицетворять, воплощать (в действительность), заключать в себе; embodiment п — во­площение, олицетворение, объединение, включение.

4. to constitute v — составлять, представлять собой, образовы­вать, учреждать, вводить в силу закон; constitution п - кон­ституция, устав, строение, структура; учреждение (устрой­ство); constitutional а - конституционный.

WORDS AND WORD COMBINATIONS:

to exercise jurisdiction an access to something under the auspices of in this respect regardless of something to undergo something

осуществлять юрисдикцию доступ к чему-либо под покровительством, под эгидой

в этом отношении, в этой свя­зи

невзирая на подвергнуться чему-либо

 

in strict terms строго говоря

at the inception с самого начала

the former первый из двух

the latter последний из двух

SKIM reading. Work in pairs:Look through the text, and single out the topical sentences conveying the main ideas of the text.

TEXT 2: TOWARDS WORLD GOVERNMENT

One of the most significant features of twentieth-century politics has been the growing importance of international organisations. These are organisations that are transnational in that they exercise jurisdiction not within a single state, but within an international area comprising several states. Typically, they have been set up by a number of sovereign states to facilitate international cooperation. International organisations thus now reflect a growing recognition of national interdependence in an increasingly shrinking world.

The principal reason for the growth in the number and importance of international organisations is the recognition by states that, in a number of areas, they provide a more effective means of pursuing national interests. This applies particularly to national security and economic development. Quite simply, an anarchic international order in which states refuse to acknowledge an authority higher than themselves is inevitably biased towards conflict, protectionism and war. Whereas splendid isolation was a luxury that states could afford in the nineteenth or early twentieth century, this option is no longer available in a world of nuclear weapons and economic globalisation. State survival is now dependent on collective security, and economic-development requires guaranteed access to international and global markets. Both these goals can only be achieved through cooperation under the auspices of international organisations such as NATO and the OSCE on the one hand, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the IMF on the other. Growing awareness of ecological problems, such as global warming and acid rain, makes the need to construct effective international and supranational bodies all the more pressing.

In addition to providing a way of tackling problems that are beyond the power of national governments to solve, international organisations have also managed to acquire a momentum and identity

of their own. Once seen as peripheral and untested, many international bodies have become established and seemingly indispensable features of world politics. This is clearly illustrated by the contrasting histories of the League of Nations and the UN.

It is not possible, however, to explain the drift towards supranational organisations simply in terms of convenience and the pursuit of national self-interest. To some extent, it reflects an idealistic commitment to internationalism and the belief that such institutions embody a moral authority that is higher than that commanded by nation-states. In this respect, international organisation has given renewed impetus to the notion of a global state or world government, an idea that can be traced back to Imperial Rome. To examine how viable such a project is in modern circumstances, it is instructive to look at the experience of European integration, and the progress that has been made by the UN.

The 'European idea' (broadly, the belief that, regardless of historical, cultural and linguistic differences, Europe constitutes a single political community) was bom long before 1945.However, until the second half of the twentieth century, such aspirations proved to be hopelessly Utopian. Since the Second World War, Europe has undergone a historically unprecedented process of integration, aimed, some argue, at the creation of what Winston Churchill in 1946 called ii 'United States of Europe'. Indeed, it is sometimes suggested that European integration provides a model of political organisation that will eventually be accepted worldwide as the deficiencies of the tiation-state become increasingly apparent.

The EU is a very difficult political organisation to categorise. In strict terms, it is no longer a confederation of independent states (as Hie EEC and EC were at their inception). For, the result is a political body that has both intergovernmental and supranational features, the former evident in the Council of Ministers and the latter primarily in i he Court of Justice. The EU may not yet have created a federal Гигоре, but because of the superiority of European law over the national law of the member states, it is perhaps accurate to talk of a k'dcralising Europe.

* Discuss/check your considerations with the rest of the class