Area Studies and Globalism A Holistic View of Humanity

Area studies are often defined as interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship that combine a number of disciplines that focus on a particular cultural, national or geographical region. It is really an umbrella for studies that may take a wide path and include subjects like history, literature, geography, sociology, religion, anthropology, political science, economics and history. The idea is to look at a broader base of study and attempt to provide holism. Instead of studying a single country in the Balkans, we might form a curriculum about the Balkans as a region, which includes different cultural, historical and ethnic groups that do share commonalities, but also differences. The idea for this type of study became more popular after World War II - a time in which there was both a push to respond politically to perceived threats (e.g. the Cold War) and to understand the decolonization movements in Africa, Central and South America, and Asia (Szanton, ed., 2004). Certainly, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening of China, the world has seen some dramatic changes. Globalism gradually developed over the last few decades because of the increased number of regional trade agreements combined with Internet and phone communication improvements. Globalization has brought the world closer in communication, economics, politics, and especially business. The Internet and technological improvements have allowed instantaneous communication almost anywhere, and evenShow MoreRelatedOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagessuperpowers on their periphery and a second round of even more devastating global conflict. The bifurcated international system that resulted from the cold war standoff extended the retreat of globalization, but nurtured the liberation of most of humanity from colonial rule. The collapse of the Soviet empire, and the freeing of its satellite states across Eastern Europe beginning in the late 1980s, marked another major watershed that further problematizes uncritical acceptance of the historical