The Post American World, by Fareed Zakaria and The World is Flat, by Thomas Friedman

When it comes to globalization, everyone may have a different vision of it’s outcome. For Marcelo Gleiser, the author of “Globalization: Two visions of the Future of Humanity”, a completely globalized world may result in a dystopia. In contrast, Jeffrey Wasserstrom, the author of “A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization” and Tanveer Ali, the creator of “The Subway Falafel Sandwich and the Americanization of Ethnic Food” may think of globalization as other cultures sharing each other’s components to interact on a new level and spurring a more “open-minded” (Ali 27) individual.

Contemporary globalization is an exceptionally multifaceted phenomenon and can be defined as "an intensification of cross-national cultural, economic, political, social and technological interactions that lead to the establishment of transnational structures and the global integration of cultural, economic, environmental, political and social processes on global, supranational, national, regional and local levels" (Huynen, Martens & Hilderink, 2005). The very nature of the American society has experienced insightful and compound changes due to globalization that has brought with it both new opportunities and risks. Similarly, the impacts of globalization

American culture was built on the idea of progress. Our society has focused on creating new technology, advancing the current systems, and these forces thrust the world towards globality, a world where countries are increasingly interconnected. To be clear, globalization isn’t a new phenomenon, but the technological advances of the postmodern era accelerated the path to globality, a world in which our current ideas of national borders are significantly different, much more fluid. Economics is just one facet of globalization, but unmistakable in the chosen image. Economic globalization refers to the complex system that our

According to Osterhammel and Petersson, globalization “summarizes a wide spectrum of experiences shared by many people” (2). I agree with this statement and would go on to claim that globalization is a group of processes and events, some beneficial and some harmful, that have resulted in the spread of networks across the world. However, this spread of networks did not happen over night. This is in part because not all interactions are transformed into networks, as these require a certain degree of longevity. In order for interactions to become networks, groups must consider the range between each other and their interactions must be important or impactful, intense, fast, durable, and frequent. For the reason that each of these characteristics must be present in order for networks to form, globalization has been in the works for many centuries and is still at work today. Therefore, while the historical events and processes of past centuries have provided the roots of globalization, the modernization of recent decades has built upon these roots to connect the world in a way

Friedman explains the diplomacy of the twenty-first century in the following: "The world has become an increasingly, interwoven place, and today, whether you are a company or a country, your threats and opportunities increasingly derive from who you are connected to" (392). Ever since the invention of such advanced systems, it has indeed become easier to enforce power and priority over individuals and nations of lesser power, and it is now possible to engage in war against powerful rivals to a horrific degree. The consistent and credible threat of a nuclear warfare is not too difficult to uphold, despite the distance or the size of the nation. Friedman also mentions the rise of new superpowers such as the global market thanks to the Internet, an easy accessible network with the entire world. With the global market, any company or individual who utilizes this invention is able to easily manipulate the flow of the economy very similarly to how a nation does. Therefore, the potential of a smaller group of people or even an individual can match that of an entire nation. His closing remark introduces a fate which discourages the presence of security which the United States, a nation which gained its independence and security from other national

The world we live in today is going through enormous changes in economics, technology, culture, politics, etc. The effects of the changes are not so clear, since it is hard to predict how each sector would affect the other and how society will be affected. However, analyzing past and present occurrences provides some information for experts to interpret society’s reaction in the future to different transformations. Globalization can be seen as a process in which societies around the world come together and expand through the combination of different forces. This paper will explore the effects of globalization on US companies, US society and economy, and the implications for other countries in the post-industrial world.

So far Thomas Friedman has identified three eras of globalization. Globalization 1.0 lasted from 1492 (when Columbus set sail to the ‘new world’) to 1800. Friedman describes this as when we “shrank the world from a size large to a size medium” (9). This era began discovering new lands and set up trade with outside civilizations. Globalization 2.0 lasted from 1800 to 2000 when the world transformed to a “size small” due to the industrial revolution and the expansion of multinational corporations. And finally, globalization 3.0 when the world went flat because of remarkable technological advancements. Other nations, including those in the third world category, are finally able to access vast amounts of knowledge, and their previously closed off economies are now open to provide more work for their people. The economies of these nations exploded from a large labor force and exportation, but the American economy didn’t do as great. From 2000 to 2014, the share of adults living in middle-income households fell in 203 of the 229 US metropolitan areas. Global commerce has been dominated by transnational companies that do not care for individual countries, but rather cheap wages and productivity, which undeveloped nations have. Jobs that require high school diplomas, or are plain simple, are either sold off to another country or automated. Automation is the replacement of human beings with robots or machines in order to reduce salary expenses and

The world is not a large and strange place anymore. The world is a place that is interconnected and intertwined. The world has become from a place that each country and their peoples are separate and isolated to a place that each country and their peoples are part of a global network. Thanks to globalization this is occurring. Globalization is the ‘international integration” or ‘de-bordering’ – “a number of highly disparate observations whose regular common denominator is the determination of a profound transformation of the traditional nation-state” (Von Bogdandy 2). Globalization is connecting different people from different cultures and backgrounds together. More and more corporations are entering new foreign markets to sell their

In this chapter, Thomas Friedman looks at how cultures and societies will have to deal with and adapt to the changes that globalization brings to the way of doing business. It affects whole companies and individuals. He gives the perception of the world is flattening by comparing the Industrial Revolution to the IT Revolution that is happening right now. The flattening process was identified by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels in the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848. Marx’s writings about capitalism state “the inexorable march of technology and capital to remove all barriers, boundaries, frictions, and restraints to global commerce (Friedman 234).”

In Thomas L. Friedman’s “Globalization: The Super-Story”, he examines the features of globalization from various aspects and how it helps people better understand 9/11 events. He claims that globalization is the new improved system formed in place of the old “cold war system”(102), and through the patterns of which, people observe today’s world in an integrated way. Simple short phrases, organized structure, colloquial language, and punctuation are techniques Friedman uses to create a reader-friendly, convincing essay. To begin with, Friedman uses simple short phrases to emphasize his points. He starts with an enthusiastic term “big believer” (102), which establishes the colloquial

During the last decade of the twentieth century, the word ‘globalization’ has become an increasingly prominent feature of political, social, and economic discussion in academic and policymaking circles, as well as in the media. The processes and outcomes of globalization drew attention and debates that had one thing in common. The research shows that nearly everyone agrees that globalization is a trend that is changing the face of the world, and as a result the world society lives in a more ‘globalized’ world. Nearly two and a half decades passed since 1990s, and studies have been conducted to examine the causes and consequences of globalization. Moreover, nearly every person experiences some type of globalization and can testify firsthand the effects it has on their life, society, and the state. The analysis of the effects that globalization dynamics have on the world society indicates that globalization has a significant positive impact via spreading opportunities and wealth across nations, stimulating innovation and productivity, enhancing the economic development of poorer countries, and helping to improve living standards.

In Thomas Friedman’s The World Is Flat he presents his idea of the globalization of the world in all areas; from economic to communication with other countries. Friedman is a journalist from the New York Times and most of his work focuses on economic and technological innovations and advancements, and furthermore how they are associated to history. The ideas he presents in this book are both plausible and convincing. The main focus is whether the world is “flat“. The answer to this question depends on the readers’ political, economical, and technological opinions. Friedman does however present evidence in many situations where the globalization of the world is clearly evident. This essay will explore these different

‘Globalization: What’s new? What’s not? (And so what)’, portrays the speed in which globalism has increased through many different factors; economically, military, environmentally and socially. This is an idealist analytic approach, not set in stone. This leads on to

In the words of one Thomas Friedman, “The global competitive playing field was being leveled. The world is being flattened”. The world in his eyes was becoming “flat”, the playing field on which many global companies compete, was becoming level. Friedman refers to this explanation as “Globalization 3.0”, a globalization caused by new technology. The internet was the main contributor, allowing for companies in India and China to compete for business in the United States. Friedman wants the reader to understand how the world has become “flat” and the implications of the effect.

The concept of globalization is a complex and peculiar one, failing to be definable by a single, precise definition. Centrally, globalization involves information and goods being exchanged amongst different countries. These interactions and interchanges among countries globally over time is due to an increase in communication and transport networks. Globalization is often divided into three main areas being economic globalization, cultural globalization and political globalization. All three are vital areas to one’s life and globalization is said to have a large impact on each. Although globalization is controversial in the aspect that it cannot be declared just how much of an influence the notion has in the world. Political scientists such as Muhammad Ijaz Latif, Anton Pelinka and Martin Wolf all discuss this issue in their respective pieces as well as differing aspects of globalization such as the role the European Union plays in relation to globalization, the different perspectives of globalization and the challenges of the nation-state in regards to globalization.