1. What is globalization? Is it a novel phenomenon?

Globalization is the process by which businessmen take their business to the international
level.

Globalization refers to integration between people, companies, and governments. Most

noteworthy, this integration occurs on a global scale. Furthermore, it is the process of
expanding the business all over the world. In Globalization, many businesses expand
globally and assume an international image. Consequently, there is a requirement for huge
investment to develop international companies.

Globalisation is an intermittent process. Its impact may differ from time to time, but it always
brings the economic, political, social and cultural aspects of society to the global level.
Simultaneously, it continues to demonstrate new traits on an almost-daily basis and is
constantly exposed to new events. For example, the terrorist attacks of September 11th
2001 have left a profound impact on the international agenda of global negotiations and
economic agreements. This has particularly highlighted the need for a global strategy for
security.

The implications of globalisation are perceivable to all. The global opening of markets
promotes a free circulation of goods and money, as well as other world-wide services. Many
individuals, enterprises and states stand to gain from this process. They will enjoy global
offers of goods, services, capital and manpower, and ultimately, a higher standard of living.

Yet, globalisation is not always considered a blessing. The WTO rounds of recent years
reflect the growing concern and discontent, surrounding the issue of globalisation. People
feel exposed to and threatened by a process they have no influence over, and fear being
sacrificed in a global competition that is beyond their comprehension. In particular, a
number of developing nations dread lagging even further behind the developed countries,
as a result of having to combat international duties and other trade barriers, and
consequently being excluded from the global growth.

The process of globalisation therefore implies opportunities and risks. The question is not
how to stop or avoid it. Rather, it should be how to take full advantage of the benefits of
globalisation, while working to minimise its negative effects. Ensuring that global markets
benefit ordinary people will accomplish this.
2. How is contemporary globalization any distinct from that in the past?

Contemporary globalization is distinct in terms of scope, intensity, velocity, and impact •

Contemporary globalization is considered as “thick globalization”: one with high extensity,
high intensity, high velocity, and high impact

In terms of scope, contemporary globalization is diffuse • In the past, commerce involved

mainly the Western Hemisphere and their colonies
In terms of intensity, there are greater interconnectedness and more patterns of interaction •
In the past, interaction was limited (e.g. trade, conquest, religion)

In terms of speed, contemporary globalization is fast and fluid • In the past, interaction could
take so long. Today, many interactions occur instantly

In terms of impact, globalization presents both opportunities and challenges • In the past,
the distinction between the local and the global was clear

The pace of globalisation has increased for a number of reasons:

Developments in IT, transport and communications have accelerated the pace of

globalisation over the past 40 years. The internet has enabled fast and 24/7 global
communication, and the use of containerisation has enabled vast quantities of goods and
commodities to be shipped across the world at extremely low cost.

More recently, the rise of social media means that national boundaries have, in many ways
become irrelevant as producers use new forms of communication and marketing, including
micro-marketing, to target international consumers. The widespread use of smartphones
has also enabled global shoppers to have easy access to ‘virtual’ global markets.

The rise of new electronic payments systems,, including e-Wallets, pre-pay and mobile pay,
e-Invoices and mobile pay apps, also facilitate increased global trade.

Increasing em>capital mobility has also acted as a stimulus to globalisation. When capital
can move freely from country to country, it is relatively straightforward for firms to locate and
invest abroad, and repatriate profits.

The development of complex financial products, such as derivatives, has enabled global

credit markets to grow rapidly.

Increased trade which has become increasingly free, following the collapse of communism,
which has opened up many former communist countries to inward investment and global
trade.  Over the last 30 years, trade openness, which is defined as the ratio of exports and
imports to national income, has risen from 25% to around 40% for industrialised economies,
and from 15% to 60% for emerging economies.[1].

The emergence of footloose multinational and transnational companies (MNCs and TNCs)

and the rise in the significance of global brands such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Sony,
and McDonalds, has been central to the emergence of globalisation. The drive to reduce tax
burdens and avoid regulation has also meant the establishment of complex international
business structures.
3. How did contemporary globalization come about? Which historical forces helped shape
it?

Silk roads (1st century BC-5th century AD, and 13th- 14th centuries AD)

People have been trading goods for almost as long as they’ve been around. But as of the
1st century BC, a remarkable phenomenon occurred. For the first time in history, luxury
products from China started to appear on the other edge of the Eurasian continent – in
Rome. They got there after being hauled for thousands of miles along the Silk Road. Trade
had stopped being a local or regional affair and started to become global.

Spice routes (7th-15th centuries)

The next chapter in trade happened thanks to Islamic merchants. As the new religion
spread in all directions from its Arabian heartland in the 7th century, so did trade. The
founder of Islam, the prophet Mohammed, was famously a merchant, as was his wife
Khadija. Trade was thus in the DNA of the new religion and its followers, and that showed.
By the early 9th century, Muslim traders already dominated Mediterranean and Indian
Ocean trade; afterwards, they could be found as far east as Indonesia, which over time
became a Muslim-majority country, and as far west as Moorish Spain.

Age of Discovery (15th-18th centuries)

Truly global trade kicked off in the Age of Discovery. It was in this era, from the end of the
15th century onwards, that European explorers connected East and West – and accidentally
discovered the Americas. Aided by the discoveries of the so-called “Scientific Revolution” in
the fields of astronomy, mechanics, physics and shipping, the Portuguese, Spanish and
later the Dutch and the English first “discovered”, then subjugated, and finally integrated
new lands in their economies.

First wave of globalization (19th century-1914)

This started to change with the first wave of globalization, which roughly occurred over the
century ending in 1914. By the end of the 18th century, Great Britain had started to
dominate the world both geographically, through the establishment of the British Empire,
and technologically, with innovations like the steam engine, the industrial weaving machine
and more. It was the era of the First Industrial Revolution.

The world wars

It was a situation that was bound to end in a major crisis, and it did. In 1914, the outbreak of
World War I brought an end to just about everything the burgeoning high society of the West
had gotten so used to, including globalization. The ravage was complete. Millions of soldiers
died in battle, millions of civilians died as collateral damage, war replaced trade, destruction
replaced construction, and countries closed their borders yet again.
 In the years between the world wars, the financial markets, which were still connected in a
global web, caused a further breakdown of the global economy and its links. The Great
Depression in the US led to the end of the boom in South America, and a run on the banks
in many other parts of the world. Another world war followed in 1939-1945. By the end of
World War II, trade as a percentage of world GDP had fallen to 5% – a level not seen in
more than a hundred years.

Second and third wave of globalization

The story of globalization, however, was not over. The end of the World War II marked a
new beginning for the global economy. Under the leadership of a new hegemon, the United
States of America, and aided by the technologies of the Second Industrial Revolution, like
the car and the plane, global trade started to rise once again. At first, this happened in two
separate tracks, as the Iron Curtain divided the world into two spheres of influence. But as
of 1989, when the Iron Curtain fell, globalization became a truly global phenomenon.

Globalization 4.0

That brings us to today, when a new wave of globalization is once again upon us. In a world
increasingly dominated by two global powers, the US and China, the new frontier of
globalization is the cyber world. The digital economy, in its infancy during the third wave of
globalization, is now becoming a force to reckon with through e-commerce, digital services,
3D printing. It is further enabled by artificial intelligence, but threatened by cross-border
hacking and cyberattacks.

At the same time, a negative globalization is expanding too, through the global effect of
climate change. Pollution in one part of the world leads to extreme weather events in
another. And the cutting of forests in the few “green lungs” the world has left, like the
Amazon rainforest, has a further devastating effect on not just the world’s biodiversity, but
its capacity to cope with hazardous greenhouse gas emissions.

1. Who are the 'primary' actors in global affairs? What legal

principles govern interstate relations?
2. What is the nature of relations states have, from the
perspectives of: (a) realism; (b) liberalism; (c) constructivism;
and (d) Marxism?
3. Aside from states, which other actors exist in global affairs?