globalization as hardwired essay

Globalization in Historical Perspective

• First Online: 13 August 2019

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• Deepak Nayyar 4  

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The object of this chapter is to analyse the implications and consequences of globalization for development situated in its historical perspective. There have been many waves of globalization in the world economy during the second millennium, so that a long-term historical retrospective is essential to set the stage. But the focus is on the two recent more recent eras of globalization that began life in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It sketches a picture of the earlier era from 1870 to 1914 and outlines the contours of the present era which started circa 1980 and continues. A comparison reveals that the parallels, similarities and differences between these two epochs of globalization are striking. The implications and consequences for development also suggest significant similarities. This chapter analyses the unequal outcomes in development during the first epoch which brought it to an abrupt end. It then examines outcomes in development during the second epoch to explore the underlying factors and highlight the emerging problems. It is argued that, for people who lived in times of globalization, at every juncture, the process seemed unstoppable. Yet, history suggests that globalization has always been a fragile process. In fact, it has come to an abrupt or unexpected end many times in the past. Indeed, the process has also been reversible. The underlying reasons have been embedded in the consequences of the process of globalization, ranging from the spread of disease or pandemics to economic strains or political conflict between winners and losers whether countries or people. Of course, the backlash has taken different forms at different times. It would seem that the present era of globalization is also under stress. The problems and challenges that have surfaced are largely attributable to its economic and political consequences. It is clearly not the end of geography. It is also not the end of history.

This essay draws upon some earlier work of the author (Nayyar 2002 , 2003 , 2006 , 2007 , 2008 , 2013 and 2017 ).

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Globalisation and the Challenges of Development: An Introduction

Development Economics from the Bubble Burst to the Search for a New Paradigm. A Few Historical Milestones and Theoretical Approaches

Classical Approaches to Development: Modernisation and Dependency

For a detailed discussion, see Pomeranz 2000 , Findlay and O’Rourke 2007 , Allen 2009 , Morris 2010 and Nayyar 2013 .

The unequal treaties with Britain were signed after independence.

In the late nineteenth century, there was also some European migration to the southern part of Latin America, including Uruguay, Chile and Brazil, but it was primarily to Argentina. Similarly, there was some Indian migration to the British colonies in Africa and Asia. Both these streams of migration created a sort of ‘middle class’ among migrants.

The absolute figures on the inward stock and inward flows of foreign direct investment cited in this paragraph are obtained from the UNCTAD foreign direct investment line database, while their significance as a proportion of output or investment is estimated from data on GDP and gross capital formation reported in UNCTADStat.

These statistics on the average daily turnover in foreign exchange markets are based on theBank of International Settlements, Survey of Foreign Exchange Activity , Basle, various issues. The surveys are triennial. For the purpose of comparison, the annual values of world exports have been converted into a daily figure.

The database on international migration is slender on flows but better on stocks. But the flows cannot be inferred from changes in stocks over time because migration is a process that often stretches over time as significant proportions change their temporary status of different forms into becoming residents and then citizens. For a study of the trends, it is both necessary and appropriate to exclude the former USSR. Its inclusion distorts the picture, for comparisons over time, because its break-up into 15 independent countries, in 1991, instantly transformed internal migrants into international migrants. The evidence cited in the discussion that follows is from Nayyar ( 2013 ). The figures for 2015 are obtained from the same primary source, United Nations, Population Division, Trends in International Migrant Stock.

It needs to be said that these categories are not mutually exclusive or exhaustive. Nor do they define a once-and-for-all status. Yet, these categories serve an analytical purpose insofar as the distinctions are clear at the time that the cross-border movement of people first takes place. For a detailed discussion, see Nayyar ( 2008 , 2013 ).

The evidence on remittance cited in this paragraph is from Nayyar ( 2013 ). The data for 2015 are obtained from UNCTADStat.

The discussion that follows in this section draws upon earlier work of the author (Nayyar 2006 ).

For a more detailed discussion, as also evidence, on the convergence hypothesis, see Nayyar ( 2006 ).

This is accepted even by Williamson ( 2002 ), who is the principal exponent of the hypothesis about such convergence in the late nineteenth century.

Latin America was the exception. During the period 1870–1913, as also 1913–1950, its growth rates were at par with the highest (in North America), so that its share of world GDP rose steadily from 3.2% in 1870 to 4.5% in 1913 and 6.5% in 1950 (Nayyar 2013 ).

The figures for 1980 in this paragraph, and the next, are from (Nayyar 2013 , 2017 ), while the figures for 2016 are calculated by the author from UN national accounts statistics and international trade statistics.

For a detailed discussion, with an evaluation of evidence, on this issue, see Nayyar ( 2013 , 2017 ).

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These are World Bank estimates reported in thePovCalNet Database. For a more detailed discussion, as also evidence, see Nayyar ( 2013 , 2017 ).

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Nayyar, D. (2019). Globalization in Historical Perspective. In: Nissanke, M., Ocampo, J.A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Development Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14000-7_19

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Essay on Globalisation

List of essays on globalisation, essay on globalisation – definition, existence and impact (essay 1 – 250 words), essay on globalisation (essay 2 – 250 words), essay on globalisation – in india (essay 3 – 400 words), essay on globalisation – objectives, advantages, disadvantages and conclusion (essay 4 – 500 words), essay on globalisation – for school students (class 6,7,8,9 and 10) (essay 5 – 600 words), essay on globalisation (essay 6 – 750 words), essay on globalisation – for college and university students (essay 7 – 1000 words), essay on globalisation – for ias, civil services, ips, upsc and other competitive exams (essay 8 – 1500 words).

The worldwide integration of people, services and interests is what globalisation is all about. Since the last decade, there has been a tremendous focus on globalisation with everyone trying to have a reach at even the remotest locations of the world. This has probably been possible due to the advancement in technology and communication.

Audience: The below given essays are especially written for school, college and university students. Furthermore, those students preparing for IAS, IPS, UPSC, Civil Services and other competitive exams can also increase their knowledge by studying these essays.

The word ‘Globalization’ is often heard in the business world, in corporate meetings, in trade markets, at international conferences, in schools, colleges and many other places. So what does globalization symbolize? Is it a new concept or did it exist earlier? Let’s see.

Definition:

Globalization refers to the integration of the world nations by means of its people, goods, and services. The statement – ‘ globalization has made the world a small village ’ is very true.

Countries inviting foreign investment, free trade and relaxation in the visa rules to allow seamless movement of people from one country to another are all part of globalization.

In a nutshell, globalization has reduced the distance between nations and its people.

Many among us refer to the current period that we live in as ‘The Era of Globalization’ and think that the process of globalization has started only recently. But the real fact is that globalization is not a new phenomenon . The world was moving towards globalization from a very long time. The term globalization was in existence since mid-1980s. But it was only from the early 21 st century that globalization picked up momentum due to the advancements in technology and communication.

Impact of Globalization:

Globalization has more positive outcomes than the negative ones. The impact of globalization on the developing countries such as India, China and some African countries are overwhelming. Foreign investments have created a lot of employment opportunities in the developing countries and have boosted their economy. Globalization has also enabled people to interchange their knowledge and culture.

Conclusion:

Although the world is not completely globalized, we can very well say that globalization is the best way to achieve equality among nations.

In simple words, globalization means the spreading of a business, culture, or any technology on an international level. When the boundaries of countries and continents matter no more, and the whole world becomes one global village in itself. Globalization is an effort to reduce the geographical and political barriers for the smooth functioning of any business.

There are four main factors that form the four pillars of globalization. These are the free flow of goods, capitals, technology, and labors, all across the world. Although, many of the experts that support globalization clearly refuse to acknowledge the free flow of labor as their work culture.

The international phenomenon of global culture presents many implications and requires a specific environment to flourish. For instance, it needs the other countries to come to a mutual agreement in terms of political, cultural, and economic policies. There is greater sharing of ideas and knowledge and liberalization has gained a huge importance.

Undoubtedly, globalization helps in improving the economic growth rate of the developing countries . The advanced global policies also inspire businesses to work in a cost-effective way. As a result, the production quality is enhanced and employment opportunities are also rising in the domestic countries.

However, there are still some negative consequences of globalization that are yet to be dealt with. It leads to greater economic and socio-cultural disparities between the developed and the developing countries. Due to the MNC culture, the small-scale industries are losing their place in the market.

Exchanges and integration of social aspect of people along with their cultural and economic prospects is what we term as Globalization. It is considered as a relatively new term, which has been in discussion since the nineties.

Initial Steps towards Globalization:

India has been an exporter of various goods to other countries since the earlier times. Hence Globalization, for India, is not something new. However, it was only around in the early nineties that India opened up its economy for the world as it faced a major crisis of severe crunch of foreign exchange. Since then, there has been a major shift in the government’s strategies while dealing with the PSUs along with a reduction in the monopoly of the government organisations perfectly blended with the introduction of the private companies so as to achieve a sustainable growth and recognition across the world.

The Measurement of Success:

The success of such measures can be measured in the form of the GDP of India which hovered around 5.6% during the year 1990-91 and has been now around 8.9% during the first quarter of 2018-19. In fact, in the year 1996-97, it was said to have peaked up to as high as 77.8%. India’s global position is improved tremendously due to the steady growth in the GDP thus furthering the impact of globalization on India. As on date, India is ranked as the sixth biggest economy in the world. This globalization leading to the integration and trade has been instrumental in reducing the poverty rate as well.

However, given the fact that India is the second most populated country of the world, after China, this growth cannot be considered as sufficient enough as other countries such as China have increased their growth rates at much faster pace than India. For instance, the average flow of FDI in India, over the past few years has been around 0.5% of the GDP while for countries such as China it has been around 5% and Brazil has had a flow of around 5.5%. In fact, India is considered among the least globalized economy among the major countries.

Summarily, there has been a tremendous increase in the competition and interdependence that India faces due to Globalization, but a lot is yet to be done. It is not possible for a country to ignore the developments and globalization occurring in the rest of the world and one need to keep the pace of growth at a steady rate or else you may be left far behind.

The twentieth century witnessed a revolutionary global policy aiming to turn the entire globe into a single market. The motive of globalization can broadly define to bring substantial improvement in the living condition of people all around the world, education, and shelter to everybody, elimination of poverty, equal justice without any race or gender consideration, etc. Globalization also aims to lessen government involvement in various development activities, allowing more direct investors/peoples’ participation cutting across border restrictions thus expected to reap reasonable prosperity to human beings.

Main Objectives of Globalization:

The four main aspects of globalization are; Capital and Investment movements, Trade and Transactions, Education and Spread of knowledge, along with Migration and Unrestricted Movement of People.

In simpler terms, globalization visualizes that one can purchase and sell goods from any part of the world, communicate and interact with anyone, anywhere in the world and also enables cultural exchange among the global population. It is operational at three levels namely, economic globalization, cultural globalization, and political globalization. Right from its inception, the impact of globalization has both advantages and disadvantages worldwide.

Advantages of Globalization:

As the word itself suggests, this policy involves all the nations across the globe. The lifting of trade barriers can have a huge impact especially in developing countries. It augments the flow of technology, education, medicines, etc., to these countries which are a real blessing.

Globalization expects to create ample job opportunities as more and more companies can extend their presence to different parts of the world. Multinational companies can establish their presence in developing countries. Globalization gives educational aspirants from developing and underdeveloped countries more quality learning opportunities. It leads not only to the pursuit of best higher education but also to cultural and language exchanges.

Globalization also enhances a faster flow of information and quick transportation of goods and services. Moreover one can order any item from anywhere merely sitting at home. Another plus point of globalization is the diminishing cultural barriers between nations as it offers free access and cultural interactions . Also, it has been observed that there is a considerable reduction of poverty worldwide due to globalization . In addition to this, it also enables the effective use of resources.

Disadvantages of Globalization:

Globalization turned out to be a significant threat to the cottage and small-scale industries as they have to compete with the products of multi-national companies. Another dangerous effect of globalization is the condition of weak sections of the society, as they are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. The situation leads to the domination of economically rich countries over emerging countries and the increase of disparity.

The actions of multi-national companies are deplorable and always facing criticism from various social, government and world bodies as they are incompetent in offering decent working conditions for the workers. Irrational tapping of natural resources which are instrumental in causing ecological imbalance is another major accusation against multi-national companies.

Globalization is also blamed to have paved the way for human trafficking, labor exploitation and spread of infectious diseases too. In addition to all these, if any economic disaster hit a country and if they subsequently suffer from economic depression, its ripples are felt deeply in other countries as well.

Despite all its disadvantages, globalization has transformed the entire globe into a single market irrespective of its region, religion, language, culture, and diversity differences. It also leads to an increase in demand for goods, which in turn calls for more production and industrialization. Our focus should be to minimize the risks and maximize the positive outcome of global policy, which in turn can help for a sustainable long-standing development for people all around the world.

Introduction:

Globalization is the procedure of global political, economic, as well as cultural incorporation of countries . It lets the producers and manufacturers of the goods or products to trade their goods internationally without any constraint.

The businessman fetches huge profit as they easily get low price workforce in developing nations with the concept of globalization. It offers a big prospect to the firms who wish to deal with the global market. Globalization assists any nation to contribute, set up or amalgamate businesses, capitalize on shares or equity, vending of services or products in any country.

How does the Globalization Work?

Globalization benefits the international market to the entire deliberate world like a solitary marketplace. Merchants are spreading their extents of trade by aiming world as a worldwide community. In the 1990s, there was a limit of importing some goods that were already mass-produced in India such as engineering goods, agricultural products, toiletries, food items, etc.

But, in the 1990s the rich countries pressurize the WTO (World Trade Organization), World Bank (affianced in improvement financing activities), and IMF (International Monetary Fund) to let other nations spread their trades by introducing market and trade in the deprived and emerging countries. The process of liberalization and globalization in India began in the year 1991 below the Union Finance Minister Mr. Manmohan Singh.

After numerous years, globalization has fetched major uprising inside the Indian marketplace when international brands arrived in India such as KFC, PepsiCo, Mc. Donald, Nokia, IBM, Aiwa, Ericsson, etc., and began the delivery of an extensive variety of quality goods at low-cost rates.

The entire leading brands presented actual uprising of globalization at this time as a marvellous improvement to the economy of an industrial sector. Rates of the quality goods were also getting low owing to the cut-throat war happening in the marketplace.

Liberalization and globalization of the businesses in the Indian marketplace is submerging the quality of imported goods but influencing the local Indian businesses badly in large part causing the job loss of illiterate and poor labors. Globalization has remained a goldmine for the customers, but it is also a burial ground for the small-scale manufacturers in India.

Positive Influences of Globalisation:

Globalization has influenced the education sectors and students of India predominantly by making accessible the education material and enormous info on the internet. Association of Indian universities with the overseas universities has fetched a massive modification in the education business.

The health industries are too influenced enormously by the globalization of health observing electronic apparatuses, conventional drugs, etc. The trade globalization in the agricultural sector has provided a range of high-quality seeds possessing disease-fighting property. But, it is not beneficial for the underprivileged Indian agriculturalists owing to the reason of expensive seeds as well as agricultural equipment.

Globalization has given an enormous rebellion to the occupation sector by increasing the growth of trades related to the handloom , cottage, artisans and carving, carpet, jewellery, ceramics, and glassware, etc.

Globalization is definitely required by the people and nation to progress and turn into an established society and country. It benefits in expanding our visualization and thoughts. It also aids in endorsing the philosophy that we fit in a huge crowd of persons, i.e., the humankind. Once the two nations congregate, they flourish by sharing their beliefs, thoughts, opinions, customs, and behaviors. People come to know new things and also acquire a chance to discover and get acquainted with other values.

Globalization has provided many reasonably priced valued goods and complete economic welfares to the emerging nations in addition to the employment. But, it has also given growth to the crime, competition, terrorism, anti-national activities, etc. Thus, along with the pleasure it has supplied some grief too.

Globalization is a term that we hear about every now and then. Question is; do we really know what it is all about? Globalization is defined as the process of integration and interaction among people, cultures and nations who come together in order to get things done easily through contact. Globalization began with the migration of people from Africa to different parts of the world. Global developments have been achieved in various sectors through the different types of globalization. The effects of globalization have been felt in every part of the world and more people continue to embrace it. Globalization has some of its core elements that help in the process.

Types of Globalization:

Globalization does not just transform a sector unless the strategies are related to that specific sector. The first type of globalization is financial and economic globalization whereby interaction takes place in the financial and economic sectors especially through stock market exchange and international trade. The other type is technological globalization which involves the integration and connection of different nations through technological methods like the internet. Political globalization transforms the politics of a nation through interactions with adoption of policies and government that cut across other nations. Cultural globalization is basically the interaction of people from different cultures and sharing. Ecological globalization is the viewing of the earth as one ecosystem and sociological globalization is on equality for all people.

Elements of Globalization:

Globalization works with characteristic elements. Trade agreements is one of the components that significantly benefits the economic and financial globalization. These trade agreements have been designed to promote and sustain globalization by preventing barriers that inhibit trade among nations or regions. Another element is capital flow that is concerned with the measures of either a decline or a rise in domestic or foreign assets. Migration patterns is a socio-economical and cultural element that monitors the impacts of immigration and emigration actively. The element of information transfer involves communications and maintains the functioning of the markets and economies. Spread of technology is an element of globalization that facilitates service exchanges. Without these elements, globalization would have faced many challenges, which would even stagnate the process of globalization.

Impacts of Globalization:

The impact of globalization is felt differently among individuals but the end result will be either positive or negative. Globalization has impacts on the lives of individuals, on the aspects of culture, religions and education. The positive impacts of globalization include the simplification of business management through efficiency. In business, the quality of goods and services has increased due to global competition. Foreign investment has been facilitated by globalization and the global market has been able to expand. Cultural growth has been experienced through intermingling and accommodation. Interdependence among nations has developed and more people have been exposed to the exchange program between nations. Improvement of human rights and legal matters has improved through media and technology sharing. Poverty has been alleviated in developing countries due to globalization and also employment opportunities are provided. Through technology, developments have been positively influenced in most parts of the world.

Although globalization has positive impacts, the negative impacts will remain constant unless solutions are sought. One of the negative effects of globalization is job insecurity for some people. Through globalization, more innovations are achieved, for e.g., technology causes automation and therefore people get replaced and they lack jobs. Another negative impact is the frequent fluctuation of prices of commodities that arises from global competitions. On the cultural side, the fast food sector has become wide spread globally, which is an unhealthy lifestyle that was adopted due to globalization. Also, Culture has been negatively affected for people in Africa because they tend to focus more on adopting the western culture and ignore their cultural practices.

Possible Solutions to the Negative Impacts of Globalization:

Globalization has impacted the society negatively and some of the solutions might help to mitigate the impacts. When adopting cultures from other people, it is important to be keen on the effects of the culture on the people and the existing culture being practiced. For example, Africans should not focus more of the western culture such that they ignore their own culture.

In conclusion, it is evident that globalization results in both negative and positive consequences. The society should embrace the positive and mitigate the negative impacts. Globalisation is a dynamic process which involves change, so flexibility among people is a must.

The buzzword befitted to describe the growth of Modern Indian economy is ‘Globalization’. But what exactly is Globalization? Globalization can be defined as integrating the economy of a country with the rest of the countries of the world. From the Indian perspective, this implies encouraging free trade policies, opening up our economy to foreign direct investment, removing constraints and obstacles to the entry of multinational corporations in India, also allowing Indian companies to set up joint ventures abroad, eliminating import restrictions, in-short encouraging Free Trade policies.

India opened its markets to Global Trade majorly during the early Nineties after a major economic crisis hit the country. New economic reforms were introduced in 1991 by then Prime Minister Shri. P V. Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister at the time, Dr. Manmohan Singh. In many ways, the new economic policies positively contributed to the implementation of the concept of Globalization in India.

It’s Impact:

1. Economic Impact :

Globalization in India targets to attract Multinational Companies and Institutions to approach Indian markets. India has a demography with a large workforce of young citizens who  are in need of jobs. Globalization has indeed left a major impact in the jobs sector. Indian companies are also expanding their business all over the world. They are driving funds from the bigwigs of the Global economy.

The Best example in today’s time is OYO Rooms, a budding Indian company in the hospitality sector. OYO Rooms recently made headlines when it declared to raise a fund close to $1 Billion from Japan’s Soft Bank Vision Fund. Globalization has also led the Indian Consumer market on the boom. The Giant of FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) sector WALMART is also enthusiastic and actively investing in the India market.

2. Socio-Cultural impact on the Indian Society:

The world has become a smaller place, thanks to the social networking platforms blooming of the internet. India is a beautiful country which takes immense pride in “Unity in Diversity” as it is home to many different cultures and traditions. Globalization in India has left a lasting impression on the socio-cultural aspect of Indian society.

Food chains like McDonald’s are finding its way to the dining tables. With every passing day, Indians are indulging more and more in the Western culture and lifestyle. But Globalization in India has also provided a vibrant World platform for Indian Art, Music, Clothing, and Cuisine.

The psychological impact on a common Indian Man: The educated youth in India is developing a pictorial identity where they are integrating themselves with the fast-paced, technology-driven world and at the same time they are nurturing the deep roots of Indian Culture. Indians are fostering their Global identity through social media platforms and are actively interacting with the World community. They are more aware of burning issues like Climate Change, Net neutrality, and LGBT rights.

Advantages:

India has taken the Centre Stage amongst the Developing Nations because of its growing economy on the World Map. Globalization in India has brought tremendous change in the way India builds its National and International policies. It has created tremendous employment opportunities with increased compensations.

A large number of people are hired for Special Economic Zones (SEZs), Export Processing Zones (EPZs), etc., are set up across the country in which hundreds of people are hired. Developed western countries like USA and UK outsource their work to Indian companies as the cost of labour is cheap in India. This, in turn, creates more employment. This has resulted in a better standard of living across the demographic of young educated Indians. The Indian youth is definitely empowered in a big way.

Young lads below the age of 20 are now aspiring to become part of global organizations. Indian culture and morals are always strengthening their roots in modern world History as the world is now celebrating ‘International Yoga Day’ on 21st June every year. Globalization in India has led to a tremendous cash flow from Developed Nations in the Indian market. As a positive effect, India is witnessing the speedy completion of Metro projects across the country. Another spectacular example of newly constructed High-end Infrastructure in the country is the remarkable and thrilling ‘Chenani-Nashri Tunnel’, Longest Tunnel in India constructed in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. Globalization has greatly contributed in numerous ways to the development of Modern India.

Disadvantages:

As there are so many pros we cannot turn a blind eye to the cons of Globalization which are quite evident with the Indian perspective. The worst impact is seen in the environment across Indian cities due to heavy industrialization. Delhi, the capital of India has made headlines for the worst ever air pollution, which is increasing at an alarming rate.

India takes pride in calling itself an Agriculture oriented nation, but now Agriculture contributes to fragile 17% of the GDP. Globalization in India has been a major reason for the vulnerable condition of Indian Farmers and shrinking Agriculture sector. The intrusion of world players and import of food grains by the Indian Government has left minimal space for Indian farmers to trade their produce.

The impact of westernization has deeply kindled individualism and ‘Me factor’ and as a result, the look of an average Indian family has changed drastically where a Nuclear family is preferred over a traditional Joint family. The pervasive media and social networking platforms have deeply impacted the value system of our country where bigotry and homophobia are becoming an obvious threat.

One cannot clearly state that the impact of Globalization in India has been good or bad as both are quite evident. From the economic standpoint, Globalization has indeed brought a breath of fresh air to the aspirations of the Indian market. However, it is indeed a matter of deep concern when the Indian traditions and value system are at stake. India is one of the oldest civilizations and World trade has been the keystone of its History. Globalization must be practiced as a way towards development without compromising the Indian value system.

Globalisation can simply be defined as the process of integration and interaction between different people, corporations and also governments worldwide. Technology advancement which has in turn advanced means of communication and transportation has helped in the growth of globalisation. Globalisation has brought along with it an increase in international trade, culture and exchange of ideas. Globalisation is basically an economic process that involves integration and interaction that deals also with cultural and social aspects. Important features of globalisation, both modern and historically are diplomacy and conflicts.

In term of economy, globalisation involves services and goods, and the resources of technology, capital and data. The steamship, steam locomotive, container ship and jet engine are a few of the many technological advances in transportation while the inception of the telegraph and its babies, mobile phones and the internet portray technological advances in communications. These advancements have been contributing factors in the world of globalisation and they have led to interdependence of cultural and economic activities all over the world.

There are many theories regarding the origin of globalisation, some posit that the origin is in modern times while others say that it goes way back through history before adventures to the new world and the European discovery age. Some have even taken it further back to the third millennium. Globalisation on a large-scale began around the 1820s. Globalisation in its current meaning only started taking shape in the 1970s. There are four primary parts of globalisation, they are: transactions and trade, investments and capital movement, movement and migration of people and the circulation of knowledge and information. Globalization is subdivided into three: economic globalisation, political globalisation and cultural globalisation.

There are two primary forms of globalisation: Archaic and Modern Globalisations. Archaic globalisation is a period in the globalisation history from the period of the first civilisations until around the 1600s. Archaic globalisation is the interaction between states and communities and also how they were incepted by the spread by geography of social norms and ideas at different levels.

Archaic globalisation had three major requirements. First is the Eastern Origin idea, the second is distance, the third is all about regularity, stability and inter-dependency. The Silk Road and trade on it was a very important factor in archaic globalisation through the development of various civilisations from Persia, China, Arabia, Indian subcontinent and Europe birthing long distance economic and political relationships between them. Silk was the major item from China along the Silk Road; other goods such as sugar and salt were also traded.

Philosophies, different religious beliefs and varying technologies and also diseases also moved along the Silk Road route. Apart from economic trade, the Silk Road also was a means of cultural exchange among the various civilisations along its route. The cultural exchange was as a result of people’s movement including missionaries, refugees, craftsmen, robbers, artists and envoys, resulting in religions, languages, art and new technologies being exchanged.

Modern globalisation can be sub-divided into early modern and Modern. Early modern globalisation spans about 200 years of globalisation between 1600 and 1800. It is the period of cultural exchange and trade links increasing just before the modern globalisation of the late 19 th century. Early modern globalisation was characterised by Europeans empires’ maritime of the 16 th and 17 th centuries. The Spanish and Portuguese Empires were the first and then we had the British and Dutch Empires. The establishment of chartered companies (British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company) further developed world trade.

Modern Globalisation of the 19 th century was as a result of the famed Industrial Revolution. Railroads and steamships made both local and international transportation easier and a lot less expensive which helped improve economic exchange and movement of people all over the world, the transportation revolution happened between 1820 and 1850. A lot more nations have embraced global trade. Globalisation has been shaped decisively by the imperialism in Africa and in Asia around the 19 th century. Also, the ingenious invention in 1956 of the shipping container has really helped to quicken the advancement of globalisation.

The Bretton Woods conference agreement after the Second World War helped lay the groundwork for finance, international monetary policy and commerce and also the conception of many institutions that are supposed to help economic growth through lowering barriers to trade. From the 1970s, there has been a drop in the affordability of aviation to middle class people in countries that are developed. Also, around the 1990s, the cost of communication networks also drastically dropped thus lowering the cost of communicating between various countries. Communication has been a blessing such that much work can be done on a computer in different countries and the internet and other advanced means of communications has helped remove the boundary of distance and cost of having to travel and move from place to place just to get business done.

One other thing that became popular after the Second World War is student exchange programmes which help the involved students learn about, understand and tolerate another culture totally different from theirs, it also helps improve their language skills and also improve their social skills. Surveys have shown that the number of exchange students have increased by about nine times between 1963 and 2006.

Economic globalisation is differentiated from modern globalisation by the information exchange level, the method of handling global trade and expansionism.

Economic Globalisation:

Economic globalisation is just the ever increasing interdependence of economies of nations worldwide caused by the hike in movement across borders of goods, services, capital and technology. Economic globalisation is basically the means of increasing economic relationships between countries, giving rise to the birth of a single or global market. Based on the worldview, Economic globalisation can be seen as either a negative or positive thing.

Economic globalisation includes: Globalisation of production; which is getting services and goods from a source from very different locations all over the world to gain from the difference in quality and cost. There is globalisation of markets; which is the coming together of separate and different markets into one global market. Economic globalisation includes technology, industries, competition and corporations.

Globalisation today is all about less developed countries and economies receiving FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) from the more developed countries and economies, reduction in barriers to trade and to particular extent immigration.

Political Globalisation:

Political globalisation is going to on-the-long-run drop the need for separate nation or states. Institutions like the International Criminal court and WTO are beginning to replace individual nations in their functions and this could eventually lead to a union of all the nations of the world in a European Union style.

Non-governmental organisations have also helped in political globalisation by influencing laws and policies across borders and in different countries, including developmental efforts and humanitarian aid.

Political globalisation isn’t all good as some countries have chosen to embrace policies of isolation as a reactionary measure to globalisation. A typical example is the government of North Korea which makes it extremely difficult and hard for foreigners to even enter their country and monitor all of the activities of foreigners strictly if they allow them in. Citizens are not allowed to leave the country freely and aid workers are put under serious scrutiny and are not allowed in regions and places where the government does not want them to enter.

Intergovernmentalism is the treatment of national governments and states as the major basic factors for integration. Multi-level governance is the concept that there are many structures of authority interacting in the gradual emergence of political globalisation.

Cultural Globalisation:

Cultural globalisation is the transmission of values, ideas and meanings all over the world in a way that intensify and extend social relations. Cultural globalisation is known by the consumption of different cultures that have been propagated on the internet, international travel and culture media. The propagation of cultures helps individuals to engage in social relations which break regional boundaries. Cultural globalisation also includes the start of shared knowledge and norm which people can identify their cultures collectively; it helps foster relationships between different cultures and populations.

It can be argued that cultural globalisation distorts and harms cultural diversity. As one country’s culture is inputted into another country by the means of globalisation, the new culture becomes a threat to the cultural diversity of the receiving country.

Globalisation has made the world into one very small community where we all interact and relate, learn about other cultures and civilisations different from ours. Globalisation has helped improve the ease of doing business all around the world and has made the production of goods and services quite easy and affordable. Globalisation isn’t all good and rosy as it can be argued that Globalisation is just westernisation as most cultures and beliefs are being influenced by the western culture and belief and this harms cultural diversity. Nevertheless, the good of globalisation outweighs the bad so globalisation is actually a very good thing and has helped shape the world as we know it.

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Home > Books > New Knowledge in a New Era of Globalization

The Importance of Globalization in Higher Education

Submitted: 25 October 2010 Published: 01 August 2011

DOI: 10.5772/17972

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New Knowledge in a New Era of Globalization

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Patricia fox *.

• Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, USA

Stephen Hundley

*Address all correspondence to:

1. Introduction

Globalization is about the interconnectedness of people and businesses across the world that eventually leads to global cultural, political and economic integration. It is the ability to move and communicate easily with others all over the world in order to conduct business internationally. The word, globalization, is relatively new, coined in the late 1970’s. The airplane, the telephone, and the Internet are just three inventions, which are attributable to the spread of globalization. Due to the increased demand in the high tech industry around the world, business and industry have potential for huge profits working globally. So in today’s world, globalization is an important concept for students in higher education to understand and appreciate because of the demand in business and industry to hire people who can work with people of other nations and cultures and if need be can travel independently internationally to promote their business or industry. In addition, the world faces global challenges that will take interdisciplinary groups to solve these challenges; providing access to clean water for everyone on this planet and making clean renewable energy affordable just to name a few. These global challenges will need to be solved through the gathering and sharing of knowledge across disciplines, institutions, and other entities institutions on a global scale. Creating meaningful relationships that work globally is in itself challenging. In this chapter, we will look at global challenges, the makeup of model collaborative international teams; the importance of teaching globalization in higher education, how to best teach globalization, and discuss best practices in this area.

2. Recent history of globalization

How did our world become so global? In a book titled, The World is Flat , Thomas Friedman describes ten forces in the world that flattened the world and made it global. Those ten flatteners of the world include:

11/9/89 -The New Age of Creativity: When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up

8/9/95 The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public

Work Flow Software

Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities

Outsourcing and Y2K

Offshoring: Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions

Supply Chaining --Eating Sushi in Arkansas

Insourcing --What the Guys in the Funny Brown Shorts Are Really Doing

In-Forming --Google, Yahoo, MSN Web Search

The Steroids—Digital, Mobile, Personal and Virtual.

The first force to flatten the world was on 11/9/89, the fall of the Berlin Wall. Freidman calls this, The New Age of Creativity: When the Walls Came Down and the Windows Went Up. While the fall of the Wall liberated the Soviet citizens, it changed the balance of power towards democratic, free market government from authoritarian rule with central planned economies. In addition, there were ripple effects felt all over the world from the fall of the Wall one of those places was India. In 1991, India abolished trade controls after years of being almost bankrupt and then it started to prosper and grow all because of the fall of the Wall. Around the same time, May 22, 1990, IBM shipped Windows 3.0, a breakthrough version that made PCs easier to use. This version allowed millions of people for the first time to be authors of their own content in digital form, and share their content with others. As the Berlin Wall went down, Window went up. Freidman say, “The fall of the Berlin Wall didn’t just help flatten the alternatives to free-market capitalism and unlock enormous pent-up energies for hundreds of millions of people in places like India, Brazil, China, and former Soviet Empire. It allowed us to think about the world differently—to see it as more of a seamless whole. Because the Berlin Wall was not only blocking our way; it was blocking our sight—our ability to think about the world differently—to see it more as a seamless whole” ( Freidman, 2007 , pg. 54).

The second flattener of the world according to Freidman was 8/9/95 The New Age of Connectivity: When the Web Went Around and Netscape Went Public. The Internet was developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991, a British Computer Scientist. However, the Internet alone was not enough to manage the second flattening. The Internet coupled with Netscape, which went public in 1995, was the second flattener. Netscape made the Internet accessible to almost everyone. Fifteen days after Netscape was released, Windows 95 was released as the first operating system with a built-in Internet support system ( Freidman, 2007 ).

The third world flattener was Work Flow Software as demonstrated by a company named Wild Brain, which makes animated movies. This company has been taking advantage of the flattened world by making animated films through a global supply chain. To see how this works, look at an example of one show called, Higglytown Heroes . The recording for the show is done in New York city or Los Angeles, California. The design and direction for the show is done in San Francisco, California. The writers network with each other from Florida, London, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. While the animation characters are done in Bangalore, India with edits in San Francisco, California. All of these groups work together on a virtual private network (VPN) system. Freidman said, “When the walls went down, and then the PC and Netscape browser enabled people to connect with other people as never before, it did not take long before all these people who were connecting wanted to do more than just browse and send email, instant messages, pictures and music over this Internet platform. They wanted to shape things, design things, create things, sell things, buy things, keep track of inventories, do somebody else’s taxes, and read somebody else’s X-rays from half a world away (2007, pg 79.). Everything to do with computers and the Internet has transformed our lives as they are today. What is also important to note is we have evolved to where different types of computers can talk to each other over the Internet using standardized protocols that have been developed. What a drastic change from when the first personal computer went public in 1981.

Uploading: Harnessing the Power of Communities was Freidman’s fourth world flattener. Apache is an open-source web tool that allows a single server machine to host thousands of different virtual websites—music, data, text or anything. Apache proved to be an excellent product that was developed by a group of computer geeks who gave it away for free. IBM couldn’t design anything better so it decided to join the group. IBM made a deal to help form a legal structure for Apache so there would be no copyright issues in using other products developed to be used with Apache. IBM’s buy-in also indicated to the computer community that this new way of building software that was trustworthy and valuable. In another example, a 19 year old from Stanford and a 24 year old from New Zealand developed Firefox 1.0 as an open-source community software for free in 2004 ( Freidman, 2007 ). Freidman said, “…. the reason, I think community-developed software is also here to stay is that while it may not be sustainable without an economic incentive at some point, as a sheer tool for making breakthroughs and spreading those breakthroughs virally, it has proved to be very powerful” (2007, pg.111).

Freidman’s fifth world flatteners are Outsourcing and Y2K. By the late 1990’s, good things started happening in India; first the fiber optic cable linking India and the United States was exploding and the Y2K was on the horizon for January 1, 2000. The Y2K centered on a bug in computers and their internal clocks. When computers were first built to save memory space, internal clocks had two digits for the month, two digits for the day, and two digits for the year. So the issue with Y2K was that these internal clocks would mess up the entire computer because it could not go forward to the year 2000. America and India started having a relationship in a sense that started the huge flattener because with the fiber optic cable and the Internet this created a collaborative value added sources, so that businesses could source globally to the cheapest and smartest location, thus the relationship between India and America strengthened. The Y2K computer problem was fixed by low cost Indian labor and thus also a relationship between American business and Indian IT companies had been established. Therefore, the cheaper very good Indian IT companies prospered from these two events, the fiber optic networks and Y2K. Freidman said, “ …I believe that Y2K should be a national holiday in India, a second Indian Independence Day, in addition to August 15. …. because it was India’s ability to collaborate with Western companies, thanks to the interdependence created by fiber-optic networks, that really vaulted it forward and gave more Indians than ever some real freedom of choice in how, for whom and where they worked’’ (2007, pg.136).

Freidman’s sixth flattener of the world was Offshoring: Running with Gazelles, Eating with Lions. China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) on December 11, 2001. They agreed to follow the same global rules governing imports, exports and foreign investments that other WTO countries in the world were following. This opened China up for a huge influx of companies working inside of China. Offshoring is when a company takes a whole factory and relocates it to another country (offshore). An example of offshoring is when, a whole factory moves from Fargo, North Dakota to Canton, China where it would produce the exact same product in the same way only much cheaper. Outsourcing is unlike offshoring, which is taking just one part of a business; for example, accounts receivable and having another company perform the exact same functions for a much cheaper cost, which the original company was doing in-house and reintegrating their work back into the original company’s operation. By China joining the WTO, China ultimately became a challenge to the whole world with its mass of low-wage unskilled and semi-skilled workers. Other poor countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil and Vietnam have to compete for better tax breaks, subsidies, and other factors to encourage offshoring to their shores. Another problem that exists is workplace standards, lax labor laws, and low wages just to name a few. In talking about offshoring, Freidman tells a story about a friend of his who is an American-trained Chinese manager of a fuel pump factory in Beijing. Shortly after China joined the WTO, his friend posted the following proverb from Africa translated into Mandarin on the factory floor:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you better start running ( Freidman, 2007 ).

Friedman concludes by saying, “…. if Americans and Europeans want to benefit from the flattening of the world and the interconnecting of all the markets and knowledge centers, they will all have to run at least as fast as the fastest lion—and I suspect that lion will be China, and I suspect that will be pretty darn fast” (2007, pgs.150-151).

Freidman’s seventh flattener was Supply-Chaining – Eating Sushi in Arkansas. Wal-Mart is undoubtedly the largest retail company in the world and it does not manufacture a single product it sells. At Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas they have a 1.2 million square foot distribution center that has a sophisticated global supply chain. This supply chain moves 2.3 million general merchandise cartons a year down its supply chain and into its stores. As one box gets transported through the supply chain, the engineering system keeps track of it coming in, where it is needed, if it needs to be supplied again, and if it does it sends the order in all automatically. Supply chaining allows suppliers, retailers, and customers to create value by collaborating horizontally. Supply chaining also forces common standards between companies so that every process can interface with the next. These types of global supply chains have become important all over the world, the challenges are global optimization and coordination disruption prone supply with hard to predict demand. Wal-Mart is very good at redirecting its products when there is a change in demand. If demand is low in Texas then products can be redirected midstream to Indiana. What does sushi in Arkansas have to do with supply chaining? With its role as one of the ten forces that flattened the world, Wal-Mart in Bentonville, Arkansas was one of those places Thomas Friedman needed to see for himself. Freidman said, “I was thinking, Boy I would really like some sushi tonight. But where am I going to find sushi in northwest Arkansas? And even if I found it, would I want to eat it? Could you really trust eel in Arkansas? When I arrived at the Hilton near Wal-Mart’s headquarters, I was stunned to see, like a mirage, a huge Japanese steak house-sushi restaurant right next door (2007, pg156). As it turned out there were three new Japanese restaurants opening soon in Bentonville. The demand for sushi in Arkansas was not an accident, it had to do with the fact that all of the suppliers of Wal-Mart had also opened up shop in Bentonville, which is now referred to as “Vendorville” ( Freidman, 2007 ).

Freidman’s eighth flattener was Insourcing- What the Guys in Funny Brown Short Are Really Doing. It seems that UPS and FedEx both are synchronizing global supply chains for small and large companies. UPS headquarters is located in Atlanta but the UPS Worldport distributions hub is located next to the Louisville International Airport, which at night is taken over by the UPS fleet of cargo jets (270 aircraft) as packages are flown all over the world, sorted, and flown back out again a few hours later. However, UPS is much more than just a delivery company of packages. It does much more, for example, when you send your Toshiba laptop to be fixed via UPS what actually happens is that UPS is fixing the computers at its hub in Louisville in a special clean room where UPS employees are wearing blue smocks and replacing broken motherboards in Toshiba computers and shipping them out again. They are doing the same kinds of services for other companies like Papa John’s Pizza. UPS employees are driving Papa John’s Pizza trucks delivering supplies to various stores. UPS does work for Nike, Jockey and HP by having warehouses of products where they can fill the orders and the orders can be shipped via UPS. This type of business started around 1996, when UPS created a whole new global business opportunity. The term “Insourcing” fits the best for this work because UPS engineers go inside a business, analyze its manufacturing, packaging, and delivery processes; and then designs, redesigns, and manages the whole global supply chain. If a company needs it, UPS will finance part of the business. Freidman says, “UPS is creating enabling platforms for anyone to take his or her business global or to vastly improve the efficiency of his or her global supply chain” (2007, pg 175).

The ninth flattener was In-Forming- Google, Yahoo, MSN Web Search. According to Freidman, In-Forming is the individual or personal analog to uploading, outsourcing, insourcing, supply-chaining, and offshoring (2007). Whether it is Google, Yahoo, or MSN Web Search, when these search engines were new, people would react with eureka moments when they found the something in a search that was really good. Now people presume they will find the data they are looking for when they are doing a search. It is staggering the amount of information that is out to be mined. In-forming also involves searching for friends, allies, and collaborators. Search engines are businesses too. Freidman said, “Everyone can now be Googled—but everyone now can also Google. Google also equalizes access to information – it has no class boundaries, few education boundaries, few linguistic boundaries, and virtually no money boundaries” (2007, pgs.184-185).

The tenth and final flattener of the world was The Steroids- Digital, Mobile, Personal, and Virtual. In this flattener there are six steroids. The first steroid has to do with computing and the computational capacities, storage capacity, and input/output capacity of computers. In 1971, the Intel 404 processor produced only 60,000 instructions per seconds. Today’s processor does over 20 billion instructions per second. Not only are the chips faster they are also smaller. The second steroid is the breakthroughs in instant messaging and file sharing. The third steroid is the ability to make phone calls over the Internet. The fourth steroid is videoconferencing. The fifth steroid is the advances in computer graphics driven by computer games. The sixth steroid is the most impressive; it’s the wireless technology and all the devices. Freidman said, “As a result of these steroids, engines can now talk to computers, people can talk to computers, and people can talk to computers farther, faster, more cheaply, and more easily than ever before. And as that has happened, more people from more places have started asking one another the same two questions: Can you hear me now? Can we work together now?”(2007, pg. 198-199).

3. Global challenges

Over the last century, amazing inventions and innovations have transformed many lives around the world, they include: the airplane; automobile; radio and television; electrification; water supply and distribution; electronics; telephony; air condition and refrigeration; highways; spacecrafts; computers; Internet; imaging; household appliances; health technologies; petroleum and petroleum technologies; laser and fiber optics; nuclear technologies; and high performance materials ( Constable & Somerville, 2003 ). None of these inventions would have been possible without mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and technologists working together. The world needs all of these professions to collaborate globally on global challenges and create the inventions that will make our lives better in the 21 st century.

Many groups have weighed in on the global challenges Scientist, Engineers, Futurist, etc. Scientist in the InterAcademy Panel, a global network of the world’s science academies, a group of 70 scientist from various academies around the world, were recently polled at a conference hosted by the Royal Society in London, they listed the following in order as the global challenges for the world in 2020:

Climate Change

Food Security

Loss of Biodiversity

Water Shortages

Global Population

Nuclear Issues

Terrorism ( Highfield & Lawton, 2010 ).

Engineers in the United States (U.S.) through a panel convened by the U. S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE) on the other hand have another list of Global Challenges. These are their challenges:

Make solar energy economical

Provide energy from fusion

Develop carbon sequestration methods

Manage the nitrogen cycle

Provide access to clean water

Restore and improve urban infrastructure

Advance health informatics

Engineer better medicines

Reverse-engineer the brain

Prevent nuclear terror

Secure cyberspace

Enhance virtual reality

Advance personalized learning

Engineer the tools of scientific discovery (Grand Challenges for Engineering Committee, 2008).

The Millennium Project, which is a global think tank, founded in 1996. This think tank connects international experts in universities, corporations, NGOs, UN agencies and governments all around the world. The Millennium project has list of 15 Global Challenges. Their Global Challenges, which are more extensive than the other groups, are as follows:

How can sustainable development be achieved for all while addressing global climate change?

How can everyone have sufficient clean water without conflict?

How can population growth and resources be brought into balance?

How can genuine democracy emerge from authorization regimes?

How can policymaking be made more sensitive to global long-term perspectives?

How can the global convergence of information and communication technologies work for everyone?

How can ethical market economies be encouraged to help reduce the gap between rich and poor?

How can the threat of new and reemerging diseases and immune micro-organisms be reduced?

How can the capacity to decide be improved as the nature of work and institutions change?

How can shared values and new security strategies reduce ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the use of weapons of mass destruction?

How can the changing status of women help improve the human condition?

How can transnational organized crime networks be stopped from becoming more powerful and sophisticated global enterprises?

How can growing energy demands be met safely and effectively?

How can scientific and technological breakthrough be accelerated to improve the human condition?

How can ethical considerations become more routinely incorporated into global decisions? ( Glenn, Gordon & Florescu, 2010 )

If you look at all three of these global challenging lists, many of them are similar which tells us that these truly are important global challenges and they have been thought out by a number of different groups. The question is how do we solve these challenges? That is the billion dollar question.

One way to solve global challenges would be for mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and technologist all over the world to work on these global challenges together, some of that is happening now, but not to the extent that it could or should be happening. Unfortunately, in the U.S. higher education institutions are focused on becoming the best research institutions. The university’s traditional rewards for faculty engaged in research are for individual accomplishments. While lip service is given to rewarding faculty who collaborate in research, collaborating doesn’t get a faculty member promoted or tenured at research universities. There has been a call to change the way university’s reward faculty, however, there has been no change in the way faculty are tenured and promoted. It probably will take a world crisis for America’s best and brightest to realize the potential for working with others globally in a range of fields to solve the world’s greatest challenges.

What would it take to educate our college students today to feel comfortable in working with any group of individuals around the world on a project? Are our university students being prepared for this type of work? The answer today would be no for a majority of undergraduate students, however, in order to accomplish this, some skills for the future need to be entrenched into higher education institutions. As an example, a recent report from the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education (CAEE) stated that undergraduate engineering education students reported a considerable increase in intellectual growth, but reported lower personal growth and fewer opportunities to study abroad than other college students ( Atman et.al, 2010 ).

4. What skills are needed to succeed in the globalized world?

In preparing for a global career, students in their undergraduate studies should try to acquire global competencies and multicultural skills. Included in the global competencies would be workable knowledge of global leadership skills which are essential to succeed in a globalized world. If you intend to be a global leader, you should know the answers to the following questions. These questions were provided by working professionals at the IBM Corporation:

What skills are required in a global environment?

What to do and what not to do when leading in a global environment?

How to identify & tackle problems in a global team?

How to think outside the box and use innovative & creative ideas in a global team?

How to leverage the assets within a global team? ( Gandhi, 2009 )

IBM, described as world’s top provider of computer products and services, defines six competencies that global leaders should possess when managing global teams:

The ability to leverage global assets or managing global resources effectively and efficiently.

The ability to serve distinct global markets and seek new client opportunities.

The ability to address with the team; who has control to make decisions, how are risks, successes, and accountabilities shared within the team.

The ability to build collaboration within your global team through traditional methods or new collaborative tools.

The ability to understand and manage the different specialization in the team, utilize and componentized the skills as needed.

The ability to identify the key skills in the global team and utilize them in such a way that you get the most value from the project ( Gandhi, 2009 ).

Gandhi goes on to indicate global team barriers that can hamper a team’s development, they are: cultural differences; differences in expertise levels; geographic time zones differences; trust issues; language and communication differences; and work style differences. These are all further explained below:

Cultural differences - There are differences in countries, educational systems, religious backgrounds, environments, and cultures. Just in the cultural differences there are differences in individual verses collective orientation which come into play too. The best way to handle this is to build a cultural awareness, and acceptance in the team.

Differences in expertise level – The differences in expertise in a team can lead to ego issues. This is a challenge for the leader because ego problems can cause distrust issues. It is the leader’s role to understand the expertise of each of the team members.

Geographic time zones differences – The lead must consider a common time but also take into consideration cultural considerations. Allow flexible work schedules to accommodate individuals. And if needed allow for a share the pain approach so that everyone suffers equally. Always clearly communicate the acceptable time range to host a meeting. Perhaps it is not necessary for all to participate in all the meetings, make sure the right people are included in the right meetings.

Trust issues - Leaders must build the trust in the team. The leader should have at least one face to face meeting so that everyone can meet. Introduce a break the ice type scenario so that individuals can meet and learn about each other in a relaxed atmosphere before the team starts on the project. Clearly communicate team objectives, team responsibilities, team member accountabilities, project timelines, risks, etc to all team members. To build trust, communication is extremely important.

Language and communication differences- English words have different meaning in different languages so this is an area that can be extremely difficult. The use of colloquials can be very complicated in conversations. Encourage clarifications, and use a lot of pauses in communications to make sure everyone to clear.

Work style differences- Each member of the team will have different work styles and this will reflect their culture. Even a local team of individuals will have different work styles. As long as individuals can work independently and they are aware of the project deadline, goals, risks and accountability then they can still succeed ( Gandhi, 2009 ).

Building collaborative teams in the university setting can be simulated to some extent. Some of the tools available today that can be used to accomplish this are: WIKIs; Chat Rooms, Forums, Discussion Boards, Lotus Notes; Instant Messaging; Video Chats or Web Video Conferences; and Virtual Workspace Tools. These tools can be used to connect with one member of the global team or have a whole global team meeting. They can also be used for informal get together or so called global team coffee breaks for non work related talk or to celebrate team events (i.e., team member birthday, etc.).

5. Identify model collaborative international teams

Today international corporations and industries are looking for individuals who can work in a global world. International organizations have offices all over the world or may work with other organizations in order to get innovative products or services to market at the fastest possible speed. These individuals will need to know how to work successfully in international, multicultural, and interdisciplinary teams. For example, most engineering institutions produce one-disciplined technically successful skilled engineers; however, they don’t all produce engineers that are capable of working outside their discipline let alone working in a global world.

Engineering can be used as an example of one of these professions where industry has emphasized the need for more soft skills from the engineering graduate, who usually graduates with a multitude of technical skills in their related field of study and very little in the way of teamwork, communication, flexibility, multidisciplinary team work, leadership, and hardly any thoughts to multicultural and global awareness.

One example of teaching multidisciplinary team skills to engineering students was conducted in Europe with a group of six European university institutions from five European countries; Denmark, Czech Republic, Poland, Portugal, and The Netherlands. This group of universities working with an industry partner in Denmark developed a summer school for engineering students, which was specifically designed to include innovation, as well as the following:

Team- oriented Activities- Students worked collaboratively in teams to develop and engineer a product.

Multidisciplinary Approach- Teams were composed of students with different discipline backgrounds, but whose skills, knowledge, and experiences were important to achieve the project’s goal.

Multicultural Approach –Teams were composed of students from different countries.

Problem-based Learning –Learning was centered on students, using open assignments with several solutions possible and professors served as tutors.

Intensive Schedule –Students worked solely on the project because of the short three week summer term.

Industry-oriented – Summer school takes place in an industrial setting and the assignments given to the students are closely aligned with the industry requirements ( Larsen et al., 2009 ).

The students, who participated in the multidisciplinary, multicultural project, summer school were pleased with the course. The industry partner was very impressed with the quality of the innovative ideas, the animations and the prototypes. The faculty involved planned to improve the technical analysis from industry partners and plan to add more multidisciplinary activities in cost and marketing analysis. The most valuable outcomes of the summer school was the new ideas, recruitment potential, and inspiration that the young students’ received out of the experience. There was no doubt that it was a very successful summer school ( Larsen, et al., 2009 ).

Another model program named, International Networked Teams for Engineering Design (INTEnD) program involves Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Texas Pan American is meeting the challenges of globalization by offering collaborative, multidisciplinary, and innovative engineering education programs. The research and education program was started in 1998 by a multidisciplinary team of educators from MSU and other engineering educators from a variety of universities around the world; Technical University Deft, University of Utrecht, Eindhoven University, Kaiserslautern University, Tsinghua University, Catholic University of Leuven, St. Petersburg Technical University, Carlos III University, and Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) (Mariasingan et al, 2007).

In addition, the University of Michigan has also added an Engineering Global Leadership Program, Global Product Development Course, and a partnership with a Chinese university, Shanghai Jiao Tong University in order to prepare their engineering students for a global career. Other engineering school’s such as Purdue University created a Global engineering program in 2005, which focuses on preparing students for a global world. The University of Wisconsin- Madison has a certificate in International Engineering (Mariasingan et al, 2007). All of these changes in engineering education show that the faculty and administration in these universities are at the forefront of educating a global workforce.

Brigham Young University received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to implement a global virtual team’s course taught concurrently with an international capstone experience in an engineering school. This course provided students with an opportunity to be in a productive cross-cultural experience in an effective manner. This course was not meant to replace face to face interaction in different cultures (study abroad opportunities) but was meant to supplement students practice in international virtual teams and to successfully use their engineering skills. The global virtual team’s course increased the understanding of other cultures ( Zaugg et al, 2010 ).

6. Discuss the importance of teaching globalization in higher education

In 2010 a global study entitled Attributes of a Global Engineer was performed by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES) to determine the skills and experiences that today’s engineering student need to develop in school and throughout their career to successfully compete in a global workplace. ASEE’s Board of Directors established the ASEE Corporate Member Council (CMC) to convey the ideas and views of corporations to ASEE. With over 120 corporate and non-academic institutional members, the CMC's mission is to foster, encourage, and cultivate the dialogue between industry and engineering educators. Its strategic goals are:

Diversity in engineering education

Enhancing the K-12 educational pipeline/future workforce

Reforming engineering education

Collaborating on engineering research and intellectual property

Liaison with engineering, technology, and the Society

CMC has several Special Interest Groups (SIGs), which exist to share information and advance key priorities of the CMC. The International Engineering Education SIG is the CMC sponsor of the Attributes of a Global Engineer Survey Project.

The Attributes of a Global Engineer Survey Project grew out of an expressed need by CMC members to identify and validate specific knowledge, skills, abilities, and perspectives that would be required of an engineer living and working in an increasingly global context. Specifically, the goal was to refine a list of attributes that would be applicable to engineers regardless of specialty, location, or background.

The process began in early-2008, led by the International Engineering Education SIG, and involved CMC members developing a list of competencies derived from representative job descriptions, literature reviews, and other reports. This initial list was consolidated through a series of SIG meetings and events throughout 2008 and 2009; thus, here are the attributes that emerged through this process (Hundley et al, 2011):

Engineering Science Fundamentals

Mathematics (including statistics)

Physical and Life Sciences

Political and Socio-economic Sciences

Information Technology - Digital Competency

Engineering

Understanding of Design and Product Processes

Understanding of Product Life Cycle Development

Effective Teamwork/Common Goals

Possess a Multi-Disciplinary, Systems Perspective

Maintain Focus with Multiple Project Assignments

Context in which Engineering is practiced

Economics/Finances of Projects

Basic Supplier Management Principles

Customer and Societal Emotions and Needs

Cultures, Languages, and Business Norms

Societal, Economic, and Environmental Impacts of Engineering Decisions

An International/Global Perspective

Communication

Written (Memos, reports, email, letters, etc.)

Verbal (Technical & non-technical presentations plus an effective “elevator” speech)

Foreign Language (Technically fluent in at least two languages acknowledging English is considered a key global language)

Graphic (Design drawings, charts & graphs, presentation, and basic brochure design)

Digital Competency

Competent at Internet Collaboration and Communication Tools (Web-based meeting tools, team rooms, teleconferencing; file sharing, E-mail, etc.)

Active and Effective Participation in Team Efforts

A Willingness to Respect the Opinions of Others and Support Team Decisions

An Acceptable Personal Image and a Positive Personal Attitude

Treating People with Fairness, Trust, and Respect

Respect for Diversity

Courtesy and Respect

An Eagerness to Help Others

Flexibility

Self-Confidence to Adapt to Rapid/Continuous/Major Change

Thinking Both Critically and Creatively - Independently and Cooperatively

Curiosity and Desire to Learn - For Life (Show initiative, Inquire & Learn)

Seeking Advice and Forming Daily Questions to Discover New Insights.

Commitment to Quality, Timeliness, and Continuous Improvement

Understanding Basic Project and Risk Management and Continuous Improvement Concepts (like LEAN+)

Ethical Standards and Professionalism

Operate in Accordance With Acceptable Business, Societal, and Professional Norms

Maintain the Highest Level of Integrity, Ethical Behavior, and Professional Competence

Understand and Applies Good Personal Judgment

At the ASEE Annual Conference in 2010, SIG stakeholders attempted to translate the attributes into specific competencies that could be identified by levels of importance and proficiency at certain intervals of an individual’s education and professional development. The initial list totaled 48; however, through in-person meetings at the Conference, and through bi-weekly telephone conference calls and other electronic communication, the list was ultimately synthesized and consolidated. After further review and validation from CMC members, a total of 20 competencies associated with the attributes of a global engineer emerged (Hundley et al., 2011). These are:

Demonstrates an understanding of engineering, science, and mathematics fundamentals

Demonstrates an understanding of political, social, and economic perspectives

Demonstrates an understanding of information technology, digital competency, and information literacy

Demonstrates an understanding of stages/phases of product lifecycle (design, prototyping, testing, production, distribution channels, supplier management, etc.)

Demonstrates an understanding of project planning, management, and the impacts of projects on various stakeholder groups (project team members, project sponsor, project client, end-users, etc.)

Demonstrates an understanding of the ethical and business norms and applies norms effectively in a given context (organization, industry, country, etc.)

Communicates effectively in a variety of different ways, methods, and media (written, verbal/oral, graphic, listening, electronically, etc.)

Communicates effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences

Possesses an international/global perspective

Possesses fluency in at least two languages

Possesses the ability to think both critically and creatively

Possesses the ability to think both individually and cooperatively

Functions effectively on a team (understands team goals, contributes effectively to team work, supports team decisions, respects team members, etc.)

Maintains a positive self-image and possesses positive self-confidence

Maintains a high-level of professional competence

Embraces a commitment to quality principles/standards and continuous improvement

Embraces an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary perspective

Applies personal and professional judgment in effectively making decisions and managing risks

Mentors or helps others accomplish goals/tasks

Shows initiative and demonstrates a willingness to learn

The Attributes of a Global Engineer study indicated that a majority of the respondents, 52.5%, indicated that it was important, that an engineer functions effectively upon graduation from Tertiary/College/University on a team (understands team goals, contributes effectively to team work, supports team decisions, respects team members). As well, the same study indicated that, 48.4%, indicated that it was important, that engineers possess an international/global perspective upon graduation from Tertiary/College/University. In addition, the study indicates that a majority, 53.8%, indicated that it was important, that an engineer embraces an interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary perspective. This international study indicates that it is important for engineers to develop global skills while they attend Tertiary/College/University (Hundley et al, 2011).

A study by the National Academy of Engineering, The Engineer of 2020, calls for future engineers in the U.S to have complex social, global and professional skills to be successful in the future. There are a number of underlying guiding principles that lead the authors of this study to their conclusions, they are: (1) the continued pace of accelerating technological innovation; (2) the fact that technology deployed will continue to be intensely globally interconnected; (3)those affected or involved with technology will be increasingly diverse and multidisciplinary; (4) technological innovation will be shaped and affected by social, cultural, political, and economic forces; and (5) technology in everyday lives will be more seemingly transparent and more significant than it is today. Given those underlying principles the authors of the study suggested strongly that engineers of the future should have the following team skills in a global context: collaborate in a multidisciplinary and multicultural team of experts across multiple fields; have excellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical individuals; be able to communicate with technology, have an understanding for complex global markets and social context, be flexible, be receptiveness to change, and have mutual respect for everyone (Committee on the Engineer of 2020, 2004). In the past, the engineering profession use to respond as technology and society changes, but today technology is changing very rapidly and society is continually changing. We need to know how to work in a faster more global society.

7. Discuss the best practices in teaching globalization

To best teach globalization, students need to experience it, so it goes without saying that university students must take advantage of studying abroad, international internships, or research opportunities abroad. Another best practice opportunity for students is to be proficient in at least one foreign language, while it is common to be proficient in several languages in Europe this is not widely practiced in the U.S. During a graduate program, students should take advantages of enrolling in foreign universities and pursuing a dual degree, especially one that has an agreement with the university you are attending. Faculty should create sustainable networks with a foreign university in education or research in order to provide their students with these options. The institution should have a formal process or framework for globalization. It might include a discussion on how will the curriculum be restructured to include globalization, what teaching methods will be best used, and/or should international interdisciplinary research centers be established. Global competencies need to be a part of every undergraduate’s education and all barriers should be removed so that more work can be done on global research ( Widdig & Lohmann, 2007 ).

The Wharton School of Business is changing its curriculum to better prepare its graduates for a fast changing global business environment. Changes to their curriculum include several focused short term courses in the U.K., India, Brazil, China, Israel and South Africa. For example, the course in Brazil is about the environment, the one in Israel is about technology, etc. Wharton has also added courses to their curriculum in global finance, management and an increased focus in soft skills like writing, leadership and multicultural understanding ( Korn, 2011 ). These types of curriculum changes are happening in other elite business schools as well.

In Finland, globalization is integrated in the curriculum to promote internationalization of higher education. However, specialization and depth is more important in engineering education in the United States than internationalization. In Finland, internationalization is defined through three areas: mobility, multiculturalism, and networking. The key areas for internationalization in the engineering education in Finland are through:

student, teacher, and researcher mobility;

international R&D projects;

development of joint and double degrees with other institutions in other countries;

increase in foreign students and researchers in Finland;

measures in supporting the integration of foreign students and personnel in Finland;

development of the exportation competencies;

enhanced study opportunities for non-native speakers and those with immigrant backgrounds; and

more efficient use of the international organizations and cooperation arrangements ( Tossavainen, 2009 , p.528).

All of these key areas cover mobility, multiculturalism and networking.

Another excellent example of best practices of readying students to work in the global world has been practiced in The Georgia Institute of Technology since the late 1990’s when Georgia Tech’s President, Dr. G. Wayne Clough, took office in 1994. President Clough realized fast that there were a number of talented students on campus who were multi-dimensional. These students were good in music, sports or some other area and in addition these students also were interested in engineering. These students were not the best engineering students, these students were able to communicate, they were more socialized, they asked for help when needed, they thought horizontally, and most of all these students were able to tie things together from different disciplines and fields. These students made great engineering students because of these other qualities. Since that finding in the late 1990’s, Georgia Institute of Technology started targeting a unique group of freshmen, till 50% of the entering freshman in engineering played musical instruments, or participated in a musical group. This was so prevalent that President Clough had to build more recital and concert areas on campus. President G. Wayne Clough created a different kind of graduate. The students that graduate from the Georgia Institute of Technology in engineering are adaptable and can think across the disciplines and therefore are ready for a global flat world ( Freidman, 2007 ).

Thomas Friedman said in his book, The World is Flat, that the one ability students should have when leaving college is the ability to, “learn how to learn – and to constantly absorb, and teach yourself, new ways of doing old things or new ways of doing new things” (2007, pg 309). Friedman goes on to say that what you know today will soon be out of date. Thus, university students need to be aware that lifelong learning is a skill that they will need to incorporate throughout their life whether it is exploring globalization or broader aspects of a specific discipline.

Recently, there has been a call in engineering education to supplement the current curriculum with globalization, team work and multi-culture learning. However, there is also a call to bring back the excitement that an engineering profession use to enjoy, especially in a world where society needs sustainable supplies of energy, water, food, and healthcare with trends toward globalization ( Turner, 2010 ). Turner goes on to say, “The curriculum must incorporate active, engaging and relevant learning, teaching and assessment strategies to develop, self-aware, well-motivated, enterprising and independent learners” (2010, pg 36.).

Some university students learn the lessons of globalization by studying internationally. Some 3 million international students study abroad. Meaning they study at universities outside their home countries. Newly created or expanded universities in China, India, and Saudi Arabia are competing with the same students, faculty and research pre-eminence of that of Harvard and Oxford. A good example of this would be the President of King Abdullah University Science and Technology (KAUST), a brand new graduate school in Saudi Arabia. The President, who is originally from Singapore but who had a global trotting career path through Canada, United States and back to Singapore before taking the President’s position in Saudi Arabia. The renowned international business school INSEAD, has campuses, in France, Singapore, Israel, and Abu Dhabi. Students study on several campuses. ( Wildavsky, 2010 ).

Finally, there are some pragmatic strategies to facilitate, encourage, and sustain global-oriented teaching in higher education—approaches that are adaptable to a variety of disciplines and institutional contexts. These include:

Increasing the size of the international student body population

Increasing the size of foreign-born faculty members

Developing or expanding partnerships with international institutions

Providing for robust study abroad experiences of varying lengths and contexts

Engaging students in classroom, co-curricular, and other educational activities that heighten their awareness of internationalization

Fostering service learning, undergraduate research, and experiential education that includes an international component

Leveraging the partnerships of other stakeholders (e.g., alumni, business/industry organizations, professional associations and societies, community members) to provide a platform for students to participate in international learning opportunities.

8. Conclusion

By 2025, internationalization will have sharpened the hierarchy in world higher education, with a handful of university “transnational corporations” in the highest tier alongside private firms and local community college-style institutions in the lowest. This is one of the predictions made by Felix Maringe, Senior Lecturer in education at the University of Southhampton and Nick Foskett, Vice Chancellor of Keele University in a book they edited titled, Globalization and Internationalization in Higher Education. So while there is a concern of just how to teach globalization in higher education, there is also a big push for universities to go global (Morgan, 2010). Vice Chancellor Foskett says that the key theme of the book is the failure of universities to understand higher education internationalization in the context of the globalization of the world economy, rather than as a simple recruitment of international students. The book indicates that internationalization will be innate for universities at the top of the tier through cross-cultural programs, overseas campuses or distance learning (Morgan, 2010). This is only one small solution for globalizing students.

In the world today, there are over 1 billion people who don’t have adequate supplies of clean water, countless who don’t have access to medical care, millions who live without enough to eat. We live in a world that is more interconnected and more vulnerable than ever before. Infectious diseases can be transmitted easily across countries because we are so mobile. The grand challenges, no matter what group they are hailed from, in this century are huge. The young people, who are in universities and colleges, are the ones that can work towards solving these grand challenges, but it is the responsibility of those teaching these students to make sure they are equipped with right set of skills to make sure they are able to work with multicultural multidisciplinary teams to solve the problems that face the world. In pursing the grand challenges of the century, the world is much smaller and more inclusive and more connected. The challenges of the century are not that of isolated locales but of the planet as a whole. Therefore, globalization of education must be a necessary part of higher education. Business and engineering schools alike in the United States have added or are considering globalization as an important addition to a student’s higher education package. Globalization is already an important part of European education. Globalization is not a passing phenomenon. It is here to stay. Universities and colleges throughout the world need to recognize that every student needs to have global skills.

• 3. Committee on the Engineer of 2020. 2004 The Engineer of 2020:Visions of Engineering in the New Century. The National Academies Press. Washington, D.C.

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Coming together.

The exponential growth in the exchange of goods, ideas, institutions and people that we see today is part of a long-term historical trend. Over the course of human history, the desire for something better and greater has motivated people to move themselves, their goods, and their ideas around the world.

Since the first appearance of the term in 1962 ‘globalization’ has gone from jargon to cliche. The Economist has called it “the most abused word of the 21st century.” Certainly no word in recent memory has meant so many different things to different people and has evoked as much emotion. Some see it as nirvana - a blessed state of universal peace and prosperity - while others condemn it as a new kind of chaos.

If properly defined and applied, the “g-word” actually does have some utility. It can best be understood as a leitmotif of human history. It is a trend that has intensified and accelerated in recent decades and come into full view with all its benefits and destructive power. Just as climate has shaped the environment over the millennia, the interaction among cultures and societies over tens of thousands of years has resulted in the increasing integration of what is becoming the global human community.

Globalization - defined by Webster’s dictionary as a process that renders various activities and aspirations “worldwide in scope or application” - has been underway for a long time. Thousands of years before the root word for this concept - ‘globe’ - came into use, our ancestors had already spread across the earth. In fact, the process by which they migrated and populated all the continents except Antarctica was a kind of proto-globalization. Some 50,000 years ago early forms of homo sapiens, who developed in east Africa, began to travel to the far corners of the world, including to the continents of North and South America. Rising sea levels at the end of the ice age separated the Americas from the Eurasian land mass, creating two worlds that were now cut off from each other. They would not be reconnected until Christopher Columbus’s serendipitous landing on a Caribbean island in 1492. That same year a German geographer, Martin Behaim, built the first known globe as a representation of the earth.

The reconnection was called the ‘Columbian exchange,’ and it is celebrated as a landmark in the history of globalization. The discovery of the New World brought together peoples who had been separated for over 10,000 years. No less significant has been the exchange of plants and animals. A Peruvian tuber, the potato, has become a staple throughout the world, Mexican chili pepper has taken over Asia, and an Ethiopian crop, coffee, found new homes from Brazil to Vietnam, to name just a few. In the intervening period, societies have not only evolved in radically different ways and developed different economic and political structures, but they have also invented different technologies, grown different crops and, most importantly, developed different languages and ways of thinking. That diversity makes the job of reconnecting civilizations both challenging and rewarding.

Historically there were four main motives that drove people to leave the sanctuary of their family and village: conquest (the desire to ensure security and extend political power), prosperity (the search for a better life), proselytizing (spreading the word of their God and converting others to their faith), and a more mundane but still powerful force -curiosity and wanderlust that seem basic to human nature. Therefore, the principal agents of globalization were soldiers (and sailors), traders, preachers and adventurers. Signs of trade in the dawn of civilization can be seen in old seashells carried deep into the interior of Africa. Thousands of years ago traders carried goods from one part of the globe to another across oceans. Missionaries traversed deserts and mountains and sailed the seas. The spread of Buddhism from India to Indonesia led to the creation of the Borobudur temple, which is one of the first monuments of globalization. From the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian’s journey to India in the 4th century, to the Arab explorer Ibn Batuta’s travels to Europe, Asia and Africa a thousand years later, adventurers have continued to find new frontiers and establish connections among far-flung societies, cultures and economies. Even though travel was slow and dangerous, ambitious and acquisitive leaders - from Alexander the Great to Genghis Khan - ventured far from home and brought new lands under their sway. Conquest meant globalization in both directions, since the rulers often ended up being as influenced by those they ruled as vice versa.

The cast of characters whose drive and determination have established links of both domination and cooperation has changed with times. Small bands of traders carrying their wares on their backs or in boats have been replaced by giant enterprises, starting with the Dutch and British East India Companies in the 17th century. In place of solitary pilgrims and priests have come vast religious organizations that spread their beliefs, along with their languages, literatures and architecture. The few intrepid adventurers and travelers of past centuries who brought distant societies together have given way to thousands and even millions of refugees and immigrants fleeing across borders, as well as hundreds of millions of tourists jetting around the world. All these comings and goings deepen and broaden the connections among far parts of the world and facilitate the transmission of goods, ideas and cultures.

The commercial history of the past five hundred years is marked by other trends and transactions that have strengthened the bonds of interconnectedness. The rubber plants uprooted from the jungles of Brazil and transplanted in Malaysia by British colonialists in the first years of the 20th century provided the raw material for the tires in Henry Ford’s Model T; the indentured rubber tapper from China and India altered Malaysia’s ethnic composition forever. The introduction of new crops like corn and sweet potatoes from the New World had a dramatic impact on demography. For example, the growth of population in China, which had been held in check by the shortage of irrigable rice fields, got a boost from new crops that could be grown on marginal soil. Similarly, Chechnya’s population grew apace after the arrival of corn from the New World.

From the Roman empire, to Pax Britannica two centuries ago, to the Pax Americana of today, the power of super states has been another force changing the nature of interdependence. In the emerging global supply chain that now feeds consumer production worldwide, Western and American multinational corporations have taken a lead role.

The expanding circle of free trade has boosted economic growth and spawned a burgeoning middle class, which, in turn, has increased consumption of globally produced goods and rise in international tourism. Most striking have been the world’s two most populous countries, China and India. With rising income and greater consumption has come more personal freedom and a growing demand for accountable government. Even though the vast majority of the world population is still poor, the ideas of democracy, human rights and press freedom have spread. The percentage of countries which hold multi-party elections to choose their governments has grown from less than thirty percent in 1974 to over sixty percent of the 192 countries in the world.

The most powerful force for transmitting the ideas of democracy and human rights across borders is the revolution in information technology in the second half of the 20th century. The telephone, television and the Internet have been the key tools. In the late 19th century, it took Queen Victoria sixteen and a half hours to send a message of greeting across a transatlantic cable to President James Buchanan. Today vast amounts of information in multiple formats - text, voice, video - are transmitted at the speed of light. Moreover, a three minute call from New York to London costs less than a dime, instead of the $300 it cost in 1930. This dramatic drop in the price of telecommunications has made the benefits of the information explosion available to much of humanity.

Meanwhile, innovations like satellite television have connected people’s emotions across borders and oceans: the news of Princess Diana’s death flashing on cable TV’s immediately elicited wreathes of flowers from around the world. The free flow of information is also helping bridge the political divide: September 11 triggered a candlelight vigil among young Iranians. But it has also been hardening attitudes along ideological boundaries. The Arabic-language satellite station Al Jazeera’s live broadcast of Israeli-Palestine violence has widened the gulf between Arabs and Israelis.

The falling cost of communications and transportation has boosted economic growth while literacy and better health care have improved quality of life. People the world over are living longer and healthier lives, while the number of people living in poverty has dropped in most regions (though it has increased in Africa and South Asia).

Yet faster growth has its cost, too. The reduction in poverty worldwide has negative environmental consequences. Close to one percent of the world’s rainforest is disappearing every year because of expanding agriculture and trade in forest products. The closely knit global communication network that makes growth possible has also made the world as a whole more vulnerable to everything from disease and mischief to terror. HIV infection in humans developed in Africa and South America but has spread to the entire world, now infecting some 14,000 people each day. In 1997, in barely five hours the “I love you” computer virus released by pranksters in Manila wreaked $700 million worth of damage worldwide. The September 11 hijackers made use of electronic transfers of funds to finance their operation. They also relied on the Internet to coordinate their moves and buy airline tickets. Since the attacks, Osama Bin Laden’s favorite means of communicating with the world from his cave has been satellite TV.

Not that any of this mixture of the good and the bad is new. Throughout history, the introduction of breakthrough technologies has brought disruption, and created winners and losers. When the Old World connected with the New World through colonizers and explorers, new pathogens like small pox and influenza caused a “demographic holocaust,” killing three out of every four Native Americans. The colonization of the Americas and vast parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, has destroyed traditional social structures and political power while speeding up the process of economic integration. The need for labor to mine silver and work the plantations resulted in the transfer of some 10 million slaves from Africa. On the other hand, the economies of Europe and Asia boomed, fuelled by the flow of precious metals and new commodities.

No other country has played as significant a role in reconnecting the world as the United States, itself an early product of modern globalization. A vast majority of some 60 million people who left their place of birth in the most intense period of globalization in the late 19th century went to the US. Immigrants and slaves built the richest nation in history. They drew upon world resources - starting with the water mill and steam engine technology from Britain - and emerged as a leading innovator and the most potent engine of globalization. With the American victory in the World War II Pacific arena and the launch of the Marshall plan, US economic and military power has spread to far corners of the world, culminating in the end of the Cold War. The fall of the Berlin Wall symbolized the end of a global ideological division and gave a boost to the latest burst of globalization itself. It is no wonder many around the world see - and resent - globalization as a euphemism for Americanization.

At the same time, the end of the Cold War has brought into sharper focus the other huge chasm that exists between the rich and the developing nations. While globalization has created unprecedented riches, many people have also been left mired in poverty. Industrialized countries with developed infrastructure, institutions and education, and middle income countries which opened up the economy have benefited most from globalization, but the poorest countries have not grown, or in some cases have even sunk back. Thus despite the overall fall in the rate of poverty, close to a third of the world population still lives in utter poverty without access to electricity or drinking water. The gap between the rich and the poor countries and between the wealthy and the indigent within countries has also widened. The rules of global engagement that have evolved, and the institutions that manage them - from the International Monetary Fund to the World Trade Organization - reflect the power imbalance between wealthy and poor nations.

Thanks to the wider diffusion of information, today’s have-nots are more aware of the gap between themselves and the rich West, and between themselves and Western-backed domestic elites. This consciousness can be a powerful source of resentment and protest, such as the anti-American demonstrations from Venezuela to the Philippines. Overt or subliminal political and cultural messages carried with goods, ideas and entertainment from the developed world have added to the sense of disruption in many traditional societies. Combined with the misery and misrule in many countries, the bright lights of the West lure many to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The rising tide of illegal immigrants washing over the developed countries has become a major concern. The reconnection of the world through goods and ideas has also evoked conflicting responses - from admiration to bitter nationalistic and religious resistance. While students in Iran clamor for an American-style life, many in the West oppose globalization as the symbol of iniquitous free market capitalism. Many people around the globe also see a Western-led globalization aimed at destroying Islam.

What does all this mean for globalization? Will globalization be forced to retreat in the face of growing disillusionment and dangers such as terrorists’ who abuse open borders and easy economic transactions? There is, of course, a precedent for such a decline in globalization. Between the two World Wars, free trade and the free movement of people did slow to a crawl, thanks to the raising of tariff walls and a closed door to immigration. But those restrictions did not dampen the same four basic motivations - conquest, search for prosperity, proselytizing and curiosity - that have driven globalization. The Allied victory against the Nazis and Japan, in fact, reopened the flood gates of globalization, giving a further boost to trade and travel.

To be sure, many issues could throw a wrench into the engines of international integration - issues like the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, the West’s farm subsidies and intellectual property rights concerns, and the tightened visa policies of the US since Sept. 11. However, the secular trend of people connecting with the world would be hard to reverse. The search for prosperity still drives businesses to expand beyond their borders and consumers to buy the best at an affordable price, irrespective of the country of origin. The same curiosity about others that led the likes of Ibn Batuta to leave home leads millions to travel, to watch foreign movies, eat different foods and enjoy international music and sports events. The biggest difference between the globalization of the past and that of today lies in its visibility and speed. The accelerated speed of global interaction has telescoped its impact and the global spread of the media has made it instantly visible - something that in the past happened in slow motion and often out of sight. With all its promises and pitfalls, the historical process of reconnecting the human community is here to stay and increasingly visible and increasingly a challenge. Our task - whether we are citizens, scholars or statesmen - is to understand and manage globalization, doing our best to encourage its favorable aspects and keep its negative consequences at bay.

Nayan Chanda is editor of YaleGlobal Online. His essay does not reflect the view of the Center for the Study of Globalization.

© Copyright 2003 Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

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Globalization as a positive factor Essay

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Introduction

Globalization is defined as the integration of ideas, values and culture among different nations across the globe. People around the world share ideas in the different fields of practices such as technology and economy. Since the emergence of globalization, nations have realized its importance in the different spheres of life. It has facilitated the movement of people across the world and has made it easy for people to interact.

Through globalization, nations have been able to realize many benefits associated with the globalization of the economy. The essay therefore explains the importance of globalization, the economic impact on individuals and countries and how the international security system has been affected as well as the factors that have supported the growth of globalization.

Benefits of globalization

The introduction of globalization across the world has yielded many positive results that have helped in the development of individuals and nations. The benefits of globalization are therefore discussed as follows.

Due to globalization, many companies have been able to source employees for better productivity in the companies. This is because companies with employees from different backgrounds increase the productivity due to the pool of ideas.

Developed countries have been able to create employment opportunities for people from developing countries and this has given them an opportunity to explore the untapped resources in the developing countries hence being able to invest in the emerging markets (Shiva 2005, 1).

Increased competition

Due to globalization, producers have faced stiff competition in the market and this has contributed to easy accessibility of products and services at affordable prices. The stiff competition in the market has led to the production of high quality products and services since domestic companies have no option rather than producing quality goods and services for them to gain advantage in the market.

Individuals from different nations enjoy the variety of products and services in the market because companies are compelled to generate new products and services, which are unique for them to survive in the market.

This has therefore increased the living standards of people worldwide and improved the economy of countries since they do not spend a lot of their resource in achieving what they need if it can be acquired cheaply from other countries (The Economist 2011, 1).

Investment and capital flow

Many companies have invested in countries where there are opportunities hence increased their capital flow. Most developing countries have high chances of increasing their capital flow since they are able to invest in developing countries, which have resources but lack enough capital to explore them.

Globalization has given developed countries an edge to excel in the market due to improved technologies which many companies in developing countries lack and this has given them greater opportunities to invest (Shiva 2005, 1).

Foreign trade

Globalization has made foreign exchange easy among countries due to the agreement on how to operate the business. The set rules and regulations have given people opportunities to operate in different spheres of business without any panic as compared to ancient times when people could snick products to other countries.

This has again increased the living standards of individuals since they are able to acquire what they require without much strain and at cheaper prices as compared to the era when foreign trade was not legalized.

Foreign trade has therefore become friendly to all individuals even to the uncivilized since there are organizations like the World Trade Organizations (WTO), which unite them hence operating comfortably (International Monetary Fund 2000, 1).

Technological knowledge

Globalization has greatly contributed to the sharing of knowledge, which has led to the innovations among nations. Initially, the knowledge of technology and innovation was in the western countries but later spread to other countries, which has led to improved health facilities in developing countries. The political as well as the economic knowledge has developed better methods of agriculture hence increased productivity.

In the section of politics, most countries have achieved democracy, which has resulted to better economy in different nations since individuals are well informed about political matters. This has also made other countries to be more powerful since they are able to exert pressure on the political systems of other countries (Stiglitz 2008, 1).

Integration of culture

Through globalization, people have been able to become citizens of other countries due to search for employment or opportunities to invest. People of different backgrounds have different cultures and when they interact, they are forced to leave some of their beliefs and adopt new values from other culture, which are of benefit to the development.

Due to the free interaction between people of different cultures societies just like individuals have developed new cultures due to influence from other cultures and dropped their own which they feel are not of any value such as dressing styles, cooking styles and other values of culture like music and art (Romer 1986, 6).

Globalization has accelerated the growth of education across the world. Individuals are free to move from one country to another in search of the better forms of education to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills for the chosen career paths.

People are also able to carry out research on various projects in other countries to acquire the necessary knowledge to develop the home countries. For example, Japan is well known for efficiency and high quality and many countries send their people to learn there and apply the knowledge in their countries (Pankaj 2007, 6).

Legal and ethical effects

Before globalization, countries had hard times to prosecute the criminals because of the jurisdictions that existed among nations and criminals could therefore escape the law once they sought refuge in other countries. Due to globalizations, the problem has been solved through the introduction of the international courts of justices, which handle cases of such criminals by bringing them forward for the law to be imposed on them.

Countries have also been able to join hands together and fight against terrorism since there is mutual understanding between the security agencies. This has assisted to curb such cases of crimes hence creation of security (Ritzer 1993, 36).

Environmental and social concerns

Globalization has contributed to the formation of organizations that cater for the environment as well as the social activities. Nations have joined hands to form organizations, which monitor the climate and the environment such as UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programmed), and many other organizations, which have assisted in the reduction of production fluctuations in countries.

Globalization has therefore resulted to better resolutions across the globe in reference to technology, economy and culture. The effect of economic integration and globalization has created many changes in the face of individuals and countries.

For this aspect of economic integration to come to reality, technology has contributed in terms of communication and transportation for business to take place among the countries. Economic integration has contributed to the following benefits (Mulgan 1998, 46).

Creation of financial opportunities

Globalization has made many people realize their dreams in the businesses since they are able to acquire the financial support they need. Before the emergence of globalization, many companies were not able to access the funds they required to develop their businesses since they were limited to local sources for their capital but due to globalization, companies have been able to access money from other developed countries.

For instance, the World Bank is an international organization, which enables companies, and developing countries receive loans for developing at friendly rates (World Bank 1999, 1).

The small business enterprises are also able to access loans to develop their businesses since there are groups, which lend money to people at a non-profit rate, and individuals across the world are able to access them.

In the global economy, the companies can seek foreign investors from any country to invest in their businesses. This has increased the economy of countries as well as improving the living standards of individuals (IMF Issues Brief 2008, 1).

Language changes

Economic globalization has resulted to changes in language since people of different communities with different languages are involved in the business. Before the introduction of foreign trade, many people used to speak in their native languages since trade was done within their territories. Due to globalization, many people have learnt other foreign languages for easy communication.

This has therefore made some languages to be recognized as international like English, which is used as a professional language.

This has led to better ways of communication, which has facilitated unity among nations since people are able to understand one another and the appreciation of other languages that people never recognized. For instance, the Mandarin Chinese is a language that has become of interest among the Americans (Naim 2009, 1).

Cultural impact

Economic integration has created changes in the culture of different countries and communities. Through foreign trade, people have been able to buy new products from other countries, which are designed according to their cultures, and this has led to the appreciation of different cultures.

Many countries have adopted different cooking styles especially in developing countries’ hotels to be able to accommodate people from other developed countries whom they trade with like the Americans and the Japanese. This has therefore resulted to unity among the nations (Castells 2001, 45).

Commercial advances

Due to economic integration, many commercial advances have been realized in different countries. Through this integration, various products and consumer items have gained an edge in the market as compared to the ancient times before economic integration where people could not appreciate goods and other consumables from some foreign countries.

Companies like Coca Cola, Sony and many others have managed to manipulate themselves across the world. This has contributed to the popularity of some products, which were not recognized in some countries hence increased income that increases the economy of a country as well as improving the living standards of individuals (Foreign Policy 2002, 2).

Globalization is accepted by different political arenas due to its benefits to the members. Globalization has therefore been accepted and is likely to continue surviving due to the following factors.

Improved technology in communication and transportation

Due to improved technology in the field of communication and transportation, people have been able to communicate to each other and move across the world with easy.

Through the introduction of internets and phones across the world communication has been made easy that people from different geographical places can communicate as if they are talking face to face when making business deals. Through such devices, people are able to share ideas, which help them develop (Cogburn 1998, 2).

Improved technology in transportation has accelerated the growth of globalization since people from different countries are able to move from one place to another for conferences to discuss globalization issues. Improved transport has also enabled the movement of products from one country to another.

Governments have therefore helped in the realization of globalization by constructing airports and seaports for smooth running of businesses across the world since people are able to move from one country to another within the shortest period (Cha 2000, 3).

Economic liberalization has assisted in the growth of globalization by signing agreements, which enable individual and companies to trade.

Many nations have therefore signed policies like free trade agreements, accepted investors into their countries without any restriction and this has accelerate the rate of globalization growth. Through such treaties, countries have improved their economies and the living standards of the citizens (Bhagwati 2008, 1).

Through human migration

Countries have allowed free movement of people from one nation to another and this has led to the sharing of ideas, technology and cultural values.

Due to search of employment in foreign countries and opportunities for investment, people have been able to share the cultural values since they drop some of the values and adapt new ones to fit in the environment. Through such movements, people are able to improve on technological ideas that contribute to globalization (Giddens 1990, 56).

Through capitalism, individuals are able to pursue their own interest without restriction. For instance, when someone want to develop his/her career he or she is free to choose the institution, which has made it easy for people of different background mingle and stay as one family (Freidman 2005, 1).

Due to democracy, countries have been able to implement laws and regulations, which protect the interests of individual as well the right of the minorities in societies. Such laws have therefore led to the growth of globalization since individuals are able to exercise the authority for instance moving to a different country, or buying of products from other countries even if they are produced within the home country (Bhagwati 2011, 1).

Popular culture

The popularity of music, movies or actors has increased the change in cultural values since people listen to music or watch movies of different cultures, which has led to the appreciation of other people’s cultures. By appreciating a different culture, many people end up adapting it and this has led to globalization (Klein 1999, 1).

Globalization has become wide spread across the world since many individuals and countries are able to benefit. It has led to improved economic status of countries since they are able to export the products and services to receive money for developing their countries as well as reducing the cost of production through importation of the products.

Individuals have also improved their living standards through the creation of employment and easy way of accessing goods and services at a reduced price.

Bibliography

Bhagwati, Jagdish. 2011. Multinational corporations and development: Friends or foes. Web.

Bhagwati, Jagdish. 2008. “ Why the Critics of Globalization are Mistaken ” Handelsblatt . Web.

Castells, Michael. 2001. Information technology and global capitalism on the edge: Living with global capitalism, ed. W. Hutton and A. Giddens. London: Vintage.

Cha, Victor. 2000. Globalization and the study of international security. Journal of Peace Research 37: 391-403.

Cogburn, Douglas. 1998. “Globalization, knowledge, Education and Training in the Global World”, Conference Paper for the Info Ethics 98, UNESCO . Web.

Freidman, Thomas. 2005. “Wake Up and Face the Flat Earth,” YaleGlobal . Web.

Foreign Policy. 2002. ‘Globalization’s Last Hurrah? Foreign Policy . Web.

Giddens, Andrew. 1990. The consequences of modernity . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

IMF Issues Brief. 2008. “ Globalization: A Brief Overview ” IMF . Web.

International Monetary Fund 2000. Globalization: Threat or opportunity, International Monetary Fund .

Klein, Naomi. 1999. “ Rebels in Search of Rules ” New York Times . Web.

Mulgan, Glenn. 1998. Connexity: Responsibility, freedom, business and power in the new century (revised edition). London: Viking.

Naim, Moises. 2009. “Globalization,” Foreign Policy . 171: 28-34. Web.

Pankaj Ghemawat. 2007. Why the world isn’t flat. Foreign Policy 159: 54-60.

Ritzer, George. 1993. The mcdonaldization of society . Thousand Oaks: Forge Press.

Romer, Paul. 1986. Increasing returns and long-run growth. Journal of Political Economy 94: 1002-37.

Shiva, Vandana. 2005. “ The polarized world of globalization ”. Web.

Stiglitz, Joseph. 2008. Making globalization work: The 2006 Geary lecture. The Economic and Social Review 39: 171-190.

The Economist. 2011. A game of catch-up, special report : The World Economy 24, no. 9. Web.

World Bank. 1999. World Development Report 1998/99: Knowledge for Development. Washington: World Bank. 9. no. 8.

• Negative Effects of Globalization in Developing Nations
• The Intellectual Capital in Globalization Practices
• Globalization and Development
• Globalization Positive and Negative Impacts
• Concept and History of the Economic Globalization
• Effects and Nature of Globalization
• Globalization and its influences
• The strategic alliance
• Impact of globalization on the market power
• Globalization Impact on Life Career and Future
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• Chicago (N-B)

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• Library of Congress
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Globalization: A Resource Guide

Defining globalization.

• Introduction
• Historical Analysis
• History of International Economics & Trade
• History of International Finance & Global Markets
• Elements of Globalization
• Trends in Globalization
• Globalization and Pandemics
• Organizations & Research Institutions
• Periodicals
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• Using the Library of Congress

Literature about globalization is produced by sociologists, political theorists, economists, historians, anthropologists, and journalists. Globalization is a term variously employed, even by experts within a single discipline. There is substantial debate, not only about its definition, but also about its significance, and how it shapes our world. Most agree that globalization rests upon, or simply is, the growth in international exchange of goods, services, and capital, and the increasing levels of integration that characterize economic activity. In this sense, globalization, is only another word for internationalization. Importantly, it is economic activity that is fuel and furnace of cross-border integration.

Listed below are books and online resources that help researchers understand globalization and related concepts. The following materials link to fuller bibliographic information in the  Library of Congress Online Catalog . Links to digital content are provided when available.

The following internet resources provide further definition of the topic of globalization.

• Globalization (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) External An online encyclopedia that provides a comprehensive analysis on the history of globalization, covering: 1. Globalization in the History of Ideas; 2. Globalization in Contemporary Social Theory; 3. Normative Challenges of Globalization; Bibliography; and Other Internet Resources.
• What Is Globalization? And How Has the Global Economy Shaped the United States? External An online guide by Peterson Institute for International Economics. "After centuries of technological progress and advances in international cooperation, the world is more connected than ever. But how much has the rise of trade and the modern global economy helped or hurt American businesses, workers, and consumers? Here is a basic guide to the economic side of this broad and much debated topic, drawn from current research."--Publisher description.
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Home / Essay Samples / Social Issues / Globalization / The Effects of Globalization: A Comprehensive Analysis

The Effects of Globalization: A Comprehensive Analysis

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• Topic: Globalization , Indian Economy

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History of Globalization

Features of globalization.

• It leads to greater interaction between different populations in social terms.
• Culturally, globalization represents the exchange of ideas, values and artistic expression between cultures and even a trend towards the development of a single world culture.
• Globalization has paid political attention to intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization.
• Legally, globalization has changed the creation and enforcement of international law.

Factors That Led to Globalization

Globalization on the example of indian economy.

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