What Is Globalization In The 21st Century

This essay looks at how globalization in the 21st century di"ers from globalization in the 20th century. Today, according to Manyika et al. (2016, p. 4) from the McKinsey Global Institute, “accelerating 4ows of data and information are changing the dynamics of globalization”. Prior to this, at the very turn of the century, Keohane and Nye (2000) examined their contemporary globalization and identi)ed three changes—not in degree, but in kind—that had emerged in the run-up to the 21st century. Similarly, Stiglitz recalls a “semantic shift from the international to the global” in the 1990’s, with the “creation of a new world order that was truly ‘global’ at the dawn of the twenty-)rst century” (Stiglitz, 2014, p. 474). By exploring these earlier

Keohane and Nye prefer “to speak of globalism as a phenomenon with ancient roots and of globalization as the process of increasing globalism, now or in the past”. To them, “the issue is not how old globalism is, but rather how "thin" or "thick” it is at any given time. Globalism is “a state of the world involving networks of interdependence at multi-continental distances”, and for the sake of analysis, the “division into separate dimensions of globalism—e.g. economic, military or cultural globalism—is useful, as their advancement can occur asynchronously.” (Keohane & Nye, 2000, pp.

Other areas of interconnectedness are too in4uenced by the economic sector. For example, the cultural sphere has often followed economic globalism (Keohane & Nye, 2000, p. 107). This is illustrated by the way the KOF Index of Globalization proxies the social degree of globalization, by factoring in the number of McDonald’s restaurants in a country (KOF Index of Globalization: Method of Calculation, 2016). The predominant role of economics is also emphasized by Manyika et al., who characterize 20th century globalization as a “tangible 4ow of physical goods between advanced economies, driven by multinational companies” (2016, p. 5). Driven by military and economic demand, the 20th century was the “century of acceleration” and transportation networks, electri)cation, computerization and miniaturization—at )rst unevenly—soon encompassed the world (Breville, Rekacewicz, Richard, Rimbert, & Vidal, 2011b). The impact of these developments lies not in the increased velocity, but in the reduced costs of communicating they entail (Keohane & Nye, 2000, p. 113). The accentuation of the cost reduction explains why the current form of globalization has only developed recently: Even though the velocity of globalism increased with new technology as the telephone, only with the dramatic fall of prices, e.g. with the advent of the Internet, the intensity of contact and therefore globalism