Main Causes And Drivers Of Globalization

2. Main causes and drivers of globalization
The treaty of Westphalia in 1648, has been known to be the beginning of the system of sovereign states. Unlike the previous treaties, the treaty of Westphalia drew up a list of core principles, which re-defined the conception of the state; territories were defined, and the lands uninfringeable. Supremacy of the nation-state became accepted as the norm and hence allowed growth of international relations (Pant, 2011). However, although this resulted on countries being more diplomatic and did allow an increase in trade, warfare did not end here.
It was only after World War II in 1944 that the western economies gathered at the Bretton Woods Conference, to create a new international monetary and financial order, with the IMF and World Bank acting as political drivers to promote macro-economic integration. The two international institutions aided in the acceleration of regional integration and a global market place. It was the continuous development and success of reducing barriers internationally and promoting trade by both the Kennedy round, 1963, and the Tokyo round, 1975, that the Uruguay round in 1993, was developed, creating the GATT (presently known as WTO); established to liberalize international trade on the principle of non-discrimination and elimination of trade barriers by multilateral negotiations (Neaumann, 2009). Finally, came the Doha round in 2001, to further liberalize global trade and investment, resulting in the