International Relations on the personal level

The way international relations affects my life and how I affect it is probably seen most in my standing as a consumer. Because of cheap labor found in countries such as China and Taiwan, I am able to purchase a mass-produced clothing, for example, at much cheaper prices than I would if the products were manufactured in America. By shopping at stores such as Wal-Mart, I partake in the global exchange and fuel the forces that drive both consumer prices and labor wages down.

My power of purchase translates in other ways as well– just as using cell phones has indirectly fueled civil war in the DRC, my dependence on foreign oil is catalyzing violence not only in Iraq but also in other developing nations like Nigeria and Mauritania. The excessive use of this foreign oil and other fossil fuels will also lead to devastation of most developing nations, like Kenya, who is vastly losing resources as Lake Victoria dries up from global warming. Other countries, such as those in South-Pacific Asia, will feel the burn of our (and others’) energy emissions through monsoons, hurricanes, drought, flood, and other deleterious climate shifts.

On the flip side, my tendency as an American consumer to use lots of energy has created a demand for cleaner energy like biodiesel. This demand translates into research into and production of newer plants that poor, rural farmers of foreign nations can easily produce, like jatropha. The need for biodiesel is helping many farmers in Mali achieve economic independence as I am writing this blog.

I influence other countries in non-economic ways as well. Being a college student, for example, the grades I make register with the grades of the millions of other students in the country, and if they are good, they help to boost the national educational rank. Because nations compete, my influencing a good national educational standard will influence other nations to rise to that standard as well. In theory, at least.

All of the affects I have seem pretty obsolete in the grand scale. It is how these actions accumulate that great change is produced.