Global issues are increasingly prevalent and lead to numerous impacts on the whole planet. A school of thought holds that maintaining good relations with other countries has become more important than ever. I partly agree with this perspective for some reasons listed below.
Most of today’s major problems transcend national borders, making international cooperation indispensable. Issues such as environmental pollution, global warming, or climate change affect many countries, and no nation can solve them alone. If a nation adopts greener strategies to reduce global warming, while neighboring countries remain unaware or uncooperative, its effort may turn out to be meaningless. Thus, countries might need to have good relationships with each other to ultimately reach an agreement and the required cooperation to completely solve the problem.
Furthermore, strong diplomatic ties also help prevent competition and conflict from worsening global crises. Even when a crisis makes resources scarce, which potentially leads to disputes and wars, trust between nations could encourage coordination instead of confrontation. This eventually results in overall more effective crisis management. However, when countries are overdependent on each other, the consequences of a single collapse can be harder to control. Since countries are economically and technologically interdependent, a failed nation could possibly trigger domino effect among others, ultimately resulting in a global impact. Governments therefore should not only focus on the importance of relationships but also the independence of countries.
In conclusion, I agree that contemporary global challenges are transnational and require cooperation founded on positive international relations. Nevertheless, countries should still maintain strategic autonomy and independence.