Aspects of Globalization

The distinctiveness of global relations will perhaps become more clear if we take a quick survey of some of their main manifestations. In terms of commu­nications, for example, globalization has been occurring through computer networks, telephony, electronic mass media, and the like. Such technologies permit persons to have nearly immediate con­tact with each other, irrespective of their location on earth and regardless of the state borders that might lie between them. Hence a fax will reach a destination across the ocean almost as quickly as a receiver next door.

In respect of organizations, globalization has been transpiring through the proliferation and growth of companies, associations, and regulatory agencies that operate as transborder networks.

Bodies such as Nissan Corporation, Amnesty International, and the World Intellectual Property Organization treat the whole planet as their field of activity and regard humanity at large as their actual or potential clients.

Ecologically, globalization has been taking place through such phenomena as planetary cli­mate change (or 'global warming'), stratospheric ozone depletion, the pending worldwide exhaus­tion of certain natural resources, and a decline in Earth's biodiversity. None of these environmental developments can be isolated in one or the other country; they have arisen in, and affect, the world as a single place. In respect of production, so-called 'global factories' have expanded in sectors like motor cars and micro-electronics. Here the various stages of manu­facture (e.g. research and development, processing of materials, preparation of components, assembly of parts, finishing, and quality control) are not con-fined within a national economy, but link up across several countries in a single production line. Concurrently, globalization has been unfolding in respect of money and finance, with the emergence of round-the-clock round-the-world stock markets, the spread of globally recognized credit cards, the increasing use of currencies like the yen and the Mark all over the world, and so on.

Meanwhile the military sphere has seen the advent of global weaponry. Intercontinental ballis­tic missiles, spy satellites, and the like have in cer­tain respects turned the world as a whole into a single strategic realm. Although the Gulf War of 1990-1 was fought on the ground in Iraq and Kuwait, it equally involved satellite remote sensing, supersonic bombing raids, electronic transborder payments to fund the operations, a propaganda struggle in the global mass media, and a worldwide coalition against Baghdad legitimated through a global governance agency, the United Nations.

Globalization has also encompassed many norms that govern our lives, including thousands of technical standards and (purportedly) universal human rights. These and an ever-increasing num­ber of other rules have acquired a supraterritorial rather than a country-specific character.

Finally, globalization has been evident in every-day thinking. People living at the end of the twen­tieth century are aware of the world as a single place to an extent that earlier generations were not. Perhaps the greatest spur to this shift in conscious­ness came in 1966, with the production of the first photographs taken from outer space showing planet Earth as one location.

Taking the preceding observations in sum, we see that globalization has had a very wide-ranging scope. Indeed, the process has in some way touched every aspect of social relations. The radio brings reports from Buenos Aires and Beijing straight to our breakfast tables. Swings on the global financial markets make and break our fortunes, sometimes from one day to the next. We drink Coca-Cola, munch a Big Mac, wear jeans, listen to the latest hit singles, and watch the newest video releases simul­taneously with millions upon millions of other people all over the globe. Our car adds to the green­house effect together with the bus in Bombay. Via the Internet, the worldwide network of computer networks, our office can be in immediate contact with Warsaw or Washington. The European Union is determining our food prices, while soldiers from our national army are joining troops from a dozen other states in a single UN peacekeeping operation. Our contributions to Oxfam translate overnight into relief work in Rwanda. These sorts of circum­stances did not exist when our parents were chil­dren, and there is at present every indication that our children will experience globality even more intensely than we currently do. Today we live not only in a country; in very direct and immediate senses we also live in the world as a single place.