What Do Writers Think about Globalization?

In this activity, look for and read three newspaper opinion editorials (op – ed)
discussing globalization. You may use local or international op – eds. Write a
50 – word summary for each op – ed. Identify whether they subscribe to a
particular definition in class or they have a new definition. Also, identify
whether they are broad and inclusive or narrow and exclusive.

ARTICLE 1 SUMMARY

“Globalization is not something we can hold off or turn off,” former President
Bill Clinton told an audience in Vietnam in 2000. “It is the economic equivalent
of a force of nature—like wind or water.”
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is an unwinding of globalization that gets
spoken of with the same air of inevitability. The steady increases in the flows
of trade, money, people and ideas among countries since the end of World
War II seems destined to go into reverse during an extended period of
Balkanization, with Russia and its allies operating in one sphere, China in
another and the U.S. and its allies in a third. In short, the world could be in for
something like what happened just over a century ago, when World War I, the
Russian Revolution and, yes, a global pandemic provoked countries to turn
inward.
There might be other changes to globalization’s dynamics coming. Both the
shortages the pandemic induced and the Russian invasion bring home how
becoming over-reliant on a single country’s production, be it of
microprocessors or of natural gas, can be dangerous, for example. More
broadly, perhaps there will be a recognition that globalization is neither a fait
accompli nor a magic wand that can in and of itself lead to a more prosperous
future.

ARTICLE 2 SUMMARY

Like it or not, we live in a globalized economy. How you define or measure

globalization can vary, but it tends to just mean greater financial integration
among countries, as well as more political cooperation, immigration, and trade
of goods and services. In all these domains, globalization has been on the
rise until recently.
Some economists, pundits and politicians are arguing that globalization has
peaked and will now start to reverse. Niall Ferguson sees this period of
globalization, thanks to the pandemic, fading away with a whimper. Harvard
economist Dani Rodrick is announcing the end of neoliberalism.
Globalization is far from perfect, but on balance it does make our lives better.
New tariffs and industrial policies will take us a few steps back toward
protectionism, but more trade can relieve pricing pressure and maintain the
momentum toward more integration. The tone of discourse about globalization
may have changed, but the genie is out of the bottle and won’t be contained.
ARTICLE 3 SUMMARY

As the coronavirus swept the world, closing borders and halting international
trade and capital flows, there were questions about the pandemic’s lasting
impact on globalization. But a close look at the recent data paints a much
more optimistic picture. While international travel remains significantly down
and is not expected to rebound until 2023, cross-border trade, capital, and
information flows have largely stabilized, recovered, or even grown over the
last year. The bottom line for business is that Covid-19 has not knocked
globalization down to anywhere close to what would be required for strategists
to narrow their focus to their home countries or regions.