Globalization

Globalization Essay

Globalization is a word we have been hearing on and on for the last years and a concept that will persist in years to come. Nowadays, we live in a world where people are more connected and related to each other than ever before; we live in a world easy to travel through, a world in which one person can live in Canada and have a business in India. Communication, travel, and commerce have all joined become “international” issues. All of these are effects of the globalization phenomenon.

Within the four texts that were assigned for this task I found several things in common and several issues with which I agree. The first one is the fact that globalization is a concept that lacks a precise definition. In his article, David Held suggested that to really know the impact of globalization we are in the need of knowing what in means and what its implications are. I agree with this idea since the whole globalizing concept began with a merely economical integration or economical interrelation among nations but it soon transformed into a much more complex concept difficult to define and understand; a concept involving so many features but in particular and most importantly one that Samuel Huntington predicts to be the source of future conflicts: culture.

Among the many elements I came to agree with, one that I personally find interesting and very complicated is the idea that globalization puts at stake the fate of nation-state’s identities and power.   In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas L. Friedman states that the defining perspective of globalization is integration and it ranges from trade, the economy in general to telecommunications and culture. This integration demands each nation to nation to worry more and first about international issues, especially in the economic sphere, rather than by certain national issues. By the presence of globalization, as Benjamin R. Barber said “all national economies are now vulnerable to the...