Globalization: A New Dimension Added

Vishal Sharma
The document is an insight into the concept of Globalization and tries to find out its various colours in the contemporary worlds economy

9/11/2013

Globalization: A New Dimension Added To It

When I try to define the term Globalization, I fail to do that in a single sentence or phrase. The reason probably is the wide array of concepts, ideologies, processes, countries and cultures; all contained in this single word. While still trying at, I reach a more general and collective statement; Globalization is a process to introduce a platform which gives Business Entities, Cultures, Political Systems and Different schools of thought, a level playing field where the exchange of the information, views and ideas happens among different nations and regions across the globe in order to get the maximum learning, innovation, adaptability and efficiency. The primary objective of this process is to leverage on each others strengths and build a system which is more rational and positively conducive to the world. Having said that, does it mean that the process always gives a positive outcome or does it also have its own share of pits and falls. Lets explore the process of Globalization in further depth. Ever since the man-kind evolved on earth, he needed food for thought, to experiment, to innovate, to discover, to invent and to further evolve. This need for evolution made the information exchange mandatory among different set of people from different perspectives. So, actually the process of globalization was indeed a part of human beings life since forever. However, with the limited ways of communication, the scale and magnitude of information exchanged was also greatly curbed. Very soon, mankind gave birth to fictitious lines on the globe and divided the planet into different countries. The demarcation between the countries borders gave rise to the concept of Nationalism and soon the world was not a single entity but was a conglomerate of hundreds of nations with separate systems, structures, values, religions, economies and beliefs. All those nations started working on their individual growth but the growth rates varied differently with respect to various parameters of Innovation, Support structure, Govt Policies and Knowledge Base present in those countries. Some countries achieved the super-star status due to the abundance of their

natural resources and thriving business activities and transactions. During 16th and 17th century, China and India were these 2 economic superstars who together were responsible for generating revenues more than 50% of the worlds GDP. It was finally the Industrial Revolution in the last 2 decades of 18th century which gave the required thrust to the European nations to grow at a much rapid rate which till then was just a dream. With the advancement in technology from Europe and USA, the internal demand spurred to an all-time high and whole of the world watched their progress in awe. Every other country wanted a pie of that success and thus wanted to emulate the same model but could not; due to the lack of knowledge base. This triggered the generation of a much bigger market for Europe where they can easily go and sell their technologies. Although, colonization was already a rampant process by the European countries by that time, still it was this era in early 19th century which saw Globalization in its true colours. The healthy competition soon transformed into hunger for resources and thus over powering other countries to gain the foothold and access to those local resources. The negatives of the Globalization were started being seen. Soon the world was divided into 2 when came the 1st world war. The very same process of generating wealth became diabolical in nature and was giving rise to mass destruction. The after effects of the 1st world war were seen by everybody and thus was raised the 1st question on Globalization. After that, there were many occurrences like US great depression, 2nd world war, 1971 recession followed by those wars by US in Asia and very recently The subprime crisis. The world has seen it all. The interdependence which is the most prominent feature of Globalization gives rise to unleashing of each others resources and leverage on each others strengths. But at the same time, it tempts the nations to work on the easier option of getting the resources from the other countries without exploring completely within. The Globalization process in its purest form is symbiotic in nature. It, in its ideal form is an equilibrium equation where in the exact barter of equally valued information takes place; but the mandatory addition of Humans skyhigh and uncurbed ambitions and the greed works as the catalyst to imbalance this equation. Soon follows the madness of Growth which becomes

omnipresent all around the globe and gives rise to a vicious circle of success and despair. The long lasting growth phenomenon shown by some countries made their citizens and the world globally forget the very basic point that whatever goes up, certainly comes down. And with so many countries now inter woven into each other for their socio-economic needs, face the disaster with open eyes. The same was more lucid in the recent Sub-prime crisis and now the Euro crisis with its mouth wide open gulping the nations one by one. As we discussed initially, Globalization is a phenomenon linked to the Social, Economic, Cultural and Political structures of the worlds nations. Thus, it directly affects all the above mentioned structures, be it positively or negatively. The free flow of information also gives the access to the information of making a lethal Bomb or an uprising in a nation on the same grounds as it would have happened in another nation. The exchange of the ideas might solve the mystery behind Quantum Mechanics globally or it might add fuel to the controversial subject of Jihad and Terrorism giving rise to enormous blood bath. The very recent Euro crisis has been a topic of significant discussions all over the world. The world again is divided in two, but this time its a division of thought processes with the same objective Countering the Economic Crisis raised due to Globalization. One side of the analysts and thinkers suggest the liberal way of adopting where in the liquidity is pumped in to improve the growth rate. Their logic is that the world is already on a brink of falling and any astringent step not in the direction of growth may aggravate the whole situation and might bring in the chaos. The other side says, the core reason of this situation is extra spending by the people provoked by the governments themselves to attain the growth targets. Thus, the best measure to do away with the current situation is by adopting a new life style which witnesses the Austerity in place. In a way, both the logics wish to work with same objective but with different paradigms. While the first one pleads to work against the market forces by pumping liquidity and showing fictitious growth; the second ideology supports the market forces. In the current situation, there is no clear answer and there is no direct way to negate the worsening effects of the crisis. The hunger for growth, timely or untimely; justified or unjustified; logical or illogical, has made the world sit on a

time bomb with the time ticking. Diffusing the bomb is a big enough job for the world leaders and it can be done only if the world prepares itself for 2 things: 1) Forgetting personal concerns for some time 2) Facing the tremors and after effects of the repair work Hope and wish that the world soon recovers from the threats looming large on it and post this recovery, doesnt fall prey to the ghost called Economic growth rate. The world ought to remember that sans the negative trait of Humans greed and ambition only, Globalization can be constructive and truly rewarding in nature.