One World? Summary

The main focus of this article is the theory that globalization, although it is a changing force in today’s society, the extent of the progress it has brought about is exaggerated since today’s globalization can be seen as a mere continuation of globalization that happened a century earlier. Globalization at present is driven by two forces: technology and liberalization. They enable the natural barriers of time and space to be overcome by easing means of communication, lowering communication costs, and lowering foreign trade barriers. As a result, trade has increased twice as fast s output and cross-border trade in shares is ten times as fast. Although these facts do portray the clear trend towards globalization, it can be exaggerated. For example, it is said that globalization today is blurring the lines between nations by opening trade barriers yet Britain and France are only slightly more open to trade than they were in 1913 and Japan has in fact become less open now. Another example is that product markets are still more integrated in their own countries than in other nations. Finally, labor toady is less mobile than it was in the 19^th century because factors such as language, culture and qualifications hinder the cross border integration of labor forces. When looking back at globalization, around 50 years before WWI it was driven mainly by falling transport costs, like it is driven by falling communication costs today. However, after WWI the nations, in a way, ‘crawled back into their shells’ and had fierce restrictions on capital movement.  Such a move would be virtually impossible in today’s society, since increased international integration, giant multinationals and easy communication pathways would make such a move incredibly difficult to follow through with. on the whole, though globalization may not be as progressive as it is portrayed, this time around it would be much harder to undo.