Globalization wields powerful influence over societies and cultures. Business travelers and tourists both observe and distribute new ideas. New ideas, interactions, foods and products are tried, then embraced or discarded. With the internet or satellite television, films, publications, photographs, news reports and cartoons can travel instantly, entertaining or angering audiences around the globe. With social media like Facebook or Twitter, individuals offer news and own instant pronouncements on trends. Whether slowly through immigration or immediately online, these connections bring about some convergence of norms on fashion to human rights while also provoking challenges from traditionalists. A global society has emerged, and it’s tightly linked.

In Vino Vilitas

Going the way of the blue jean and the automobile, European wine slips from its pedestal into the murky waters of globalization
Barbara Supp
November 9, 2005

This Is Not Only a French Crisis - All of Europe Must Heed the Flames

Because Europe’s much-vaunted multi-culturalism is showing cracks
Timothy Garton Ash
November 10, 2005

Tragedy and Paradox of French-Arab Relations

The French riots are about inequality, not Islam
Matein Khalid
November 11, 2005

Romancing the Globe

Five hundred years after the Conquistadors, Latin American TV serials fight back
Ibsen Martinez
November 1, 2005

South Korea Locked in Movie Quota War

US sees a trade barrier in what South Koreans call defense of their culture
Barbara Demick
November 2, 2005