American Public University
What is globalization?
Globalization is the process of the occurrence of integration and interaction of the businesses, organizations, cultures, and other social and economic facts at the global level. Some researchers define it as the unification of the social and economic facts, especially culture, in the world while some others believe that the local values do not disappear in the globalization process. It is possible to claim that there exists a convergence between the cultures through interaction at the international level. The globalization is the result of the developments in the transportation sector and the communication industry. After people have started traveling to the other countries and the continents, they have begun learning about the other people's lives. The interaction between them has enabled them to compare between lives, cultures, and conditions in the different countries.
How the globalization influences the world in the last 50 years
The globalization is a continuing process that creates many transformations all around the world simultaneously, and the unification of the culture is coming true. Every young person can have his coke while watching the survivor in their national languages, and even it is possible to see the young people watching the same thing in the same globalized language, English. Also, the globalization influences the local businesses, the local economies, the domestic relations among the people and even the shape of the buildings as well as the local cultures.
The globalization is pushing the world economy into a new era when the competition is very high at the international level. The countries are competing to increase their exports to the other countries, and many variables are influencing the competition conditions such as the technology standards of the countries in production, the quality and cost of labor, the political power, exchange rates between the national currencies, and many others. Also, these factors depend on many other sub-factors stemming from the globalization. For instance, the exchange rates are determined by many macroeconomic variables at the international level such as interest rates in the different countries, the inflation rate differences between the countries, and many others.
The human rights are claimed to be universalized, even more than globalized. Many of the people believe that the human rights should be same in every country. However, some people from the less developed countries claim that some of the human rights accepted in the West are compatible with their local culture. This situation is called as the violation of the human rights by the Westerners.
The exhaustion of the environment or the environment protection is another essential question raised by the globalization. The developed countries are relatively more sensitive to the environment protection; however, we observe that the developed countries have got utility from nature unlimitedly in the past, and the developed countries are outsourcing the environment polluting economic activities to the less developed countries or the developing countries. For instance, while the US does not produce any cement in the country, the US imports the cement from Mexico.
What is the future of the globalization?
The globalization is a process, and it is not developing the equal opportunities for every human kind in the world. Some people assume that the globalization is a development for the less developed countries or, the less advanced people while some others believe that the globalization is helping the developed countries to transfer the resources from the less developed areas of the world to the more developed regions.
In my opinion, the globalization is providing relatively better opportunities for the developed countries, and the developed countries can extend their economies to the less developed countries relatively easier. This situation will cause some social and economic problems in the world, and even wars sometimes like it is happening in the Middle Eastern countries. To some people, the wars, and the armed conflicts are due to the bad administrations in these countries; however, some people, especially the Middle Easterners, believe that the conflicts in these countries caused by the developed nations.
