The Future of Globalization Explorations in Light of Recent Turbulence

Whether a believer or a skeptic of its benefits, many would agree that globalization is a phenomenon to be seriously studied and debated. The ways in which globalization advances, stalls, or even retrogresses in the years to come not only will decisively influence international geopolitical relations, but will also determine whether or not the process of economic convergence among all countries will be firmly set in motion in the 21st Century.

Not long ago the emerging conventional wisdom among opinion leaders was that contemporary globalization is an irreversible process. This belief was based on the notion that globalization in our time has been driven essentially by technological progress in communications and transport – which conceivably cannot be undone by government intervention – as well as on confidence that pertinent national and multilateral institutions were sufficiently mature to manage the social and political stresses caused by the integration of global markets. If globalization was inexorable, then for individual countries and societies the only remaining question was whether to embrace it or be left out of it.

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