glopol case studies :(

• TNC


  Transnational Corporation
• Samsung


  • Contributed approximately 20% of South Korea's GDP
  • Consists of 80 different affiliates
  • In 2021 the revenue of the top 10 chaebols in South Korea accounted for 60% of the country's GDP
  • Hugely influential in South Korea and is the biggest chaebol in South Korea
  • Has immense power over the state
• Samsung's chairman, Lee Jae Yong was pardoned by the president in 2022 after having been convicted of bribery, embezzlement and illegally moving assets in 2017
• Samsung


  • Has greatly helped advance technology and has also benefited from doing so
  • Played a huge role in the widespread adoption of 5G
  • Worked with 3GPP to help standardise 5G internationally
  • Benefitted from 5G phone sales, selling over 6.7 million 5G phones in 2019 and accounting for over 50% of the 5G phone market compared to only a 20% share in the overall phone market
• Apple


  • Approximately 95% of Apple products are made in China
  • Has invested heavily in China to build a vast and vulnerable supply chain
  • Has been shifting away from China, for example Apple has begun production of their Iphone at partner facilities in both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in India
  • Trade disputes between the West and China have directly threatened Apple's ability to conduct business in China
• China has forced Apple to store all of its data on local state-owned servers rather than on its own private servers and has also forced Apple to comply with its strict censorship laws
• In September, 2023 China banned government officials from using Iphones
• Apple's partner Foxconn, through whom Apple primarily source their labour from in China have been accused of poor working conditions. Foxconn has also been accused of employing forced Uyghur labour in its factories in Xinjiang
• Chinese factory workers at Foxconn make roughly $2-$3 an hour and are often forced to work up to 12 hours a day. Their dorms on average house 8 people and only have 1 bathroom for around 200 people
• In 2019 a report by China Labor Watch criticised Apple for the exploitation of its workers detailing the labour violations, the withholding of bonus payments and rolling back safety training to cut costs that were common practice inside Apple's factories
• European Union


  • 28 member states transferring decision making in the areas of trade, agriculture and fisheries to a supranational organisation
  • In January 2012, The EU's executive body declared that Hungary's changes to its constitution violated EU rules and the EU threatened to take legal action
  • To leave, the UK must: invoke article 50 of the Treaty of the European Union and negotiations must be approved by 20 EU members
• South China Sea


  • Contains considerable oil and gas deposits- 11 billion barrels of oil
  • Centre for fishing- 10% of the world's fisheries
  • Necessary trade route- 30% of global trade goes through the SCS
  • US Secretary: "taking territory or control or declaring control of territories that are not rightfully China's"
  • China has frequent disputed with Vietnam over the Paracel and Spratly Island
  • The UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas declares that a state has rights to all the resources and trade 200 miles from their shore, their EEZ
  • All states use EEZ threshold to determine their claims regarding territory of the SCS, except China who believes they have a historical claim to the SCS
• May 2013: China sent ships to a shoal, within the Philippine's 200-mile EEZ, and surrounded the shoal so the Philippines could not receive shipments- challenging Philippines state sovereignty (control over its borders)
• July 2016, a tribunal in The Hague dismissed China's sovereignty claims to the South China Sea (body of water connecting the Pacific Ocean; bordered by Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia)
• Disputes between the Philippines and China go back to 2013 where: China took up a large proportion of the South China Sea which was used to distribute trade, they have also poached endangered sea species, and illegally navigated the seas that they don't have access to
• The outcome is that the Chinese govt opposed the decision (of article 298) calling it "ill-founded" and that "it neither accepts nor recognizes" the decision
• Jammu, Kashmir Ladakh


  • The border disputes in Kashmir region stem from border disputes between India, Pakistan and China
  • India and Pakistan control portions of Kashmir but lay claim to the entire region
  • China controls Aksai Chin which is claimed by India to be a part of Ladakh
  • The Uri Attack in 2016 by Jaish-e-Mohammed who are a Pakistani backed terrorist organisation launched an attack on an Indian army base, killing 19 indian soldiers. This prompted India to retaliate with surgical strikes inside Pakistan-administered Kashmir
• China has been accused of "arbitrary detention, torture and egregious restrictions on religious practice and culture" in order to supress threats from internal groups and maintain soveriengty
• ABC Investigations found 28 detention camps across Xinjiang as part of China's subjugation
• 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine challenged Ukraine's aspects of statehood
• Russia launched a full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 after having launched a smaller scale invasion in 2014 to seize control of Crimea
• As a response to Russia's invasion, they were voted by the UN General Assembly to be suspended from the UN Human Rights Council in 2022
• Palestine v Israel


  • Currently, the Israeli Jewish population and the Palestinian Arab population are at war over occupying the same land
  • Israel is currently a state and was declared so in May 1948, and the world's first and only jewish state
  • Palestine wants to become its own independent state, and is trying to do so through the two-state solution
  • Palestine is not able to be considered a state due to multiple reasons. The main one being that there is no defined territory
  • Furthermore, there are major internal disputes within the region. One of them being that the Hamas - a terrorist group - has been the main ruling of Palestine since 2007 after kicking out political powers
  • If Palestine were to become a state, it would only destabilze the region further due to the government being run by an islamic terrorist group. They do not have sovereignty and cannot maintain a functioning government or economy. Therefore, Palestine can be considered a failed state
• More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed, and tens of thousands injured by Israeli strikes since the start of the war, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. It says most were women and children
• United Nations


  • In 2017, secretary general called for the security council to make a resolution in late 2017 as the Rohingya people have been described by the United Nations as "one of the world's most persecuted minorities"
  • In 2012, 75,000 people were internally displaced according to refugee international
  • This resolution was to allow access for aid workers, ensure the return of all refugees and grant full citizen and protection to Rohingya in Myanmar but was blocked by China and Russia
  • In 2016, the UN supported 22 states reduce conflict and environmental risk
  • On the 24th of February 2022, the UN General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the United Nations Human Rights Council in response to Russia's actions in Ukraine
  • Resolution 2118 - The UNSC passed a resolution in 2013 calling for the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria as the president of Syria, Bashar Al Assad has been accused of using them on his own people that same year
  • The UN Security Council (UNSC) and its P5 members all have veto power and have in the past vetoed resolutions which prevents the UN's ability to take action against the P5 or their interests. In 2014 both Russia and China vetoed a UNSC resolution to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC
• International Monetary Fund


  • In November 2010: Irish government sought help from the IMF
  • IMF (and EU) provided loans totalling 67.5 billion Euros- which were to be paid out over the next 3 years
  • The secretary general of Irelands Department of Finance at the time said Ireland wanted to take advantage of the their "experience and their technical knowledge" and the IMF was "in the mix because it had long and deep experience of these kinds of crises"
  • By the end of 2012, the second year of the program, the Irish economy started to turn
• The UN Security Council (UNSC) and its P5 members all have veto power and have in the past vetoed resolutions which prevents the UN's ability to take action against the P5 or their interests
• In 2014 both Russia and China vetoed a UNSC resolution to refer the situation in Syria to the ICC
• Russia has close ties with Syria and its president Bashar Al Assad


  Russia abused its veto power to stop the UNSC's resolution
• In November 2010, the Irish government sought help from the IMF
• IMF (and EU) provided loans totalling 67.5 billion Euros to Ireland- which were to be paid out over the next 3 years
• The secretary general of Ireland's Department of Finance at the time said Ireland wanted to take advantage of the IMF's "experience and their technical knowledge"
• By the end of 2012, the second year of the program, the Irish economy started to turn around
• Unemployment rates in Ireland fell to less than 7% by 2017
• In November 2016, Egypt was approved a $12 billion loan by the IMF to promote inclusive growth, address macroeconomic vulnerabilities and job creation
• Conditions of the IMF loan to Egypt included floating of the Egyptian pound, tax increase, and structural reforms
• Inflation in Egypt was brought down from 30% in 2017 to 9.4%
• Devaluation of the Egyptian pound has meant substantial profits for international currency traders but living conditions for the population have deteriorated
• IMF reforms caused the Egyptian government to rise prices on cooking gas, oil, electricity and basic foods such as bread and lentils
• Just under half (50 million) of Egypt's population live in or near poverty