International Affairs and Global Strategy www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-574X (Paper) ISSN 2224-8951 (Online) Vol.16, 2013 42 Global Citizen in the Twenty First Century: Challenges and Opportunities in the Post 9/11 Era Rana Eijaz Ahmad Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore ranaeijaz@yahoo.com Abstract This paper deals with the increased activity of a global citizen in the twenty first century. It explains that how it has become difficult for a global citizen to remain loyal to the government as a unit of the state on the one hand and show allegiance towards its sociopolitical and economic pattern for a successful life on the other. It obliges an individual to face different challenges as well as have opportunities to live as an active citizen. The challenges he face are Class Conflict, ideological chauvinism, increased insecurity/terrorism, visa restrictions, Environment degradation, and globalization. A global citizen has opportunities while living in a state those are: Trade, rapid Communications, identity, representation in the legislatures, right to work, right to get education, right to health and freedom of expression, speech and assemble. The citizen has to adjust himself according to the rules and regulations where he lives even for few days. Modern age is an age of communication. World has become a global village and a citizen of one country travel from one place to another for business, education, entertainment and other works. He has to be loyal to the local laws of the place where he is visiting. Although it is a big challenge for the global citizen but he also get the opportunity of interacting with other cultures. This cultural exchange is a real asset of a global citizen. This paper is based on comparative as well as qualitative method. Key Words: Global citizen, challenges, opportunities, global village 1- Objectives of the Paper There are two main objectives of this paper: 1.1- Understanding the increased obligations of the global citizen- 1.2- It may lead to minimize terrorism in the world in post 9/11 era. 2- Definition of the Global Citizen (GC) For this paper we may define the GC, is a citizen who is influenced by the local as well as global incidents. 3- Introduction The twenty first century is full of conflicts. Humanity remains insecure although we have become more scientifically sophisticated and technologically advanced. In the state of nature human beings used to live in ‘might is right.’ In the modern state drums of democracy and human rights are beaten for the welfare of humanity. The lacuna between practice and precept creates dissatisfaction on the part of the individual. Different levels in the development of a state (developed, developing, under developing etc.) has made the individual confused. This confusion leads towards segregation of humans because of ethnic groups and classes. The communism and capitalism emerged in the twentieth century. The former ended with the end of the same century and latter facing uncertainty at the advent of twenty first century. This uncertainty is giving way to non- state actors to play a role for filling the vacuum created by the state actors in world politics. The arms race, nuclear technology, and scientific advancements could not make us advanced in our thinking but made the advanced environment. For example, in ancient times we use fire for cooking and keeping us warm. That fire usually comes of burning woods. Today, fire comes of sui-gas, oil or electricity. It has speed up our efficiency regarding consumption of time. We get our water hot in no time, cook foods and get warm without any delay. Thus, this development made us more intolerant and impatient. This, intolerance and impatience forced nations to put implications that could keep us away from meeting each other. We started restricting ourselves with drawing boundaries. These boundaries confined people within a state. That state started giving identity to human beings known as citizens of such and such states. It breeds hatred among nations because of racial differences and class variations. After the First World War in 1918, League of Nations came into existence to stop war among nations but failed owing to the start of Second World War in 1939. The United Nations came into existence in 1945 but could not resolve conflicts emerge among nations. The development of cyberspace, internet, email, fax and multimedia reduce the physical boundaries to an extent and increase the interconnectedness among individuals of the world. It created a borderless world. This borderless world is making a serious effort for creating a global citizen. The main source of becoming global citizen is social media.