Provide an analysis of the evidence which

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Provide an analysis of the evidence which suggests that globalisation is the most important force at work in this time in history. Dave McNeill

Globalisation, the integration of world economies in terms of trade, finance, investment, labour and technology, is indeed an important force at work in the world today, and there is indeed much evidence to support such a statement: the integration of national labour markets, the increase in cross boarder trade and investment, and the development of a 'world economy' with measured GDP growth all suggest that globalism has become the dominant force in the world today. However, this blind acceptance of globalism that has become all to apparent in modern times is sometimes unjustified; in the past century there have been many contentious issue that dominate the global agenda, most recently terrorism and the growing conflicts between Islamic fundamentalism and Western Culture, and dating further back this century warfare and international conflicts, that have essentially proved themselves to be as, if not more dominant that globalisation as a dominant force on the global agenda.

The first, and inherently most obvious indicator to suggest the globalism is the dominant force that it is commonly perceived as, is the massive growth in world trade that the world has experienced in the past fifty years. In 1950, the volume of world trade to world Gross Domestic Product ration was around 8%, and yet in 2001, that same ratio was at 31%, a massive increase in the volume of goods and services traded between countries with respect to world GDP output. These figures indicate that, through the means of trade, national economies have integrated - a process that still continues today. However, these figures still indicate that world output is still 70% larger than annual world trade, indicating that although globalism has developed into a significant force, domestic produce and output still dominate levels of trade vastly in terms of amounts produce and consumed.
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Furthermore, in the past twenty years the world has experienced vast growth in international finance growth; that is cross boarder financial flows. The main driver behind this growth is financial deregulation that has occurred within individual countries - the floating of currencies, removal of capital controls and the removal of interest rate controls mean that there has been a great increase in investment in overseas sharemarkets. Trans national corporations (TNCs) such as Merryl Lynch have facilitated the growth of interest in foreign investment, and with technology taken into account, since 1987 the volume of foreign, exchange traded derivatives ...

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