As many more countries are beginning to open up their economies to welcome an increased flow of goods and services, people and even ideas, the world is then becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. The extent to which this process of globalisation is occurring is so large that some have started to deem the world as borderless. With the increased flow of things in the world, comes many advantages that many closed economies would never once have imagined enjoying. But yet, there is a much darker side to globalisation that would not seem obscure to many. In fact, there is an increasing prevalence of security threats through the flow of humans and goods around the world, resulting in incidents such as the numerous terrorist attacks that one would hear about regularly. However, there are much more impacts from a borderless world than just its increasing security threats. Significant economic benefits can be reaped and with good governance, this problem of security threats can be contained. Therefore, countries should still embrace the notion of a borderless world.
Despite the many advantages of a borderless world, some countries may still prefer not to embrace this borderless world due to the possibility of the increased flow of people posing a security threat to society. These people may have different views on culture and religion from those of the domestic country or even harbour evil intent towards the country. Due to the differing mindsets of these migrants, this brings about possible tensions in society that could undermine the social fabric of the country. For example, due to the influx of migrants that were accepted into Britain, this resulted in the Boston bombings that occurred in 2013 that killed and harmed many., The bombings were initiated by several migrants that wanted to wreck havoc at this major event and bring fear to people’s lives. This thus illustrates the possible evil intentions that people from other countries may harbour to undermine the social fabric of a country. Furthermore, the acceptance of more immigrants into Europe may pose a security threat as well as these immigrants may not adopt similar mindsets to those of the domestic country. The xenophobic sentiments of some in the society also fuel the possibility of this increasing security threat as they begin to alienate these immigrants. As they become more segmented from society, this increases the possibility of these immigrants turning to getting themselves radicalised to give themselves a sense of belonging to a larger community. This is as seen in how there is an increasing trend in how many European ghettos are getting radicalised by the ISIS propaganda, which may potentially result in further tensions or even disastrous events in the future. Therefore, in order to maintain the social fabric and stability in a country, some countries would still prefer to not embrace this notion of a borderless world.
However, countries should still embrace this notion of a borderless world as the increasing security threats are caused by the interconnectedness of countries, making this a global problem and not one that is caused solely by one country. The borderless world then provides the opportunity for other countries to aid in reducing the prevalence of such security threats and not only expect the country experiencing these security threats to deal with the problems themselves. As countries are given the opportunity to work together to solve this problem without borders, countries should embrace this notion well. Taking the example of the global superpower, USA, which has the largest and strongest military in the world. They utilise their military to reduce the security threats posed to the world by sending their troops to Afghanistan, where there is a constantly raging war that poses significant security threats to both the USA itself and the world. In an attempt to settle the war using their global superpower status and strong military, the USA has reduced the security threat that the war in Afghanistan has posed to the world. Without the borderless world, it would have been difficult for the USA to send its troops to Afghanistan and the current security threat could have been much worse than it already is. Therefore, by embracing the notion of a borderless world, countries are more able and willing to send appropriate aid to other countries to reduce the increasing security threats that they pose to the world, making it important for them to do so.
In addition to being able to help in reducing the increasing security threats in the world, the notion of a borderless world should be embraced as the economic benefits significantly outweigh the security problems that may possibly arise. The security problems that may arise can be contained with a good government that allocates resources appropriately and implements the right policies in a country, allowing the country to still reap the economic benefits of a borderless world amidst the increasing security threat. Taking the example of the small and open economy of Singapore, Singapore lacks natural resources and has a relatively small labour force. They thus require foreign manpower to ensure that their economy remains strong, making them open to accepting many foreign workers into the country, This has been very successful as seen in how Singapore is considered to be very successful in economic terms, given their small land area and small population size. As an open economy, Singapore is also susceptible to increasing security threats as a result. This is as seen in how there were several bomb threats aimed at some significant locations in Singapore such as Marina Bay Sands. But with a good government that provided increased security checks and increased awareness of these security threats amongst its citizens through initiatives such as the SGSecure application, Singapore was able to prevent such disastrous events from happening. Thus, as the problem of increasing security threats is manageable with sound policies and allocation of appropriate manpower to ensure stability in a country, countries should embrace this notion of a borderless world to reap its economic benefits.
In conclusion, countries should embrace the notion of a borderless world as it provides opportunities for other countries to help in solving the root cases of the increasing security threats and also the opportunity to reap significant economic benefits from it. The problem of increasing security threats can be solved given a good government with sound implementation of policies. As this is a problem with the potential to be solved, all the more should countries strive to solve this problem and gain from what globalisation initially set out to give the world.