, a role that for the most part is dominant across all dimensions of the new globalization system.
Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Friedman argues that a new world order continues to develop. It is a faster and more homogenized world, one that is based on the abilities of technology to allow free-market capitalism to integrate the worldÆs nations as never before in history. Free-market capitalism is viewed as the means by which any nation willing to open its markets will experience a more robust and efficient economy. According to Friedman (1999), the process is possible because of technologies like the Internet and satellite communications. Such technologies have enabled the spread of American values and free-market principles throughout the globe. Friedman (1999) argues that such technologies and a global market have not only integrated the globe and its peoples but they have also represented an unstoppable juggernaut of change to those refusing to adapt. As he writes: ôGlobalization involves the inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree never witnessed before û in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations, and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than every before, and in a way that is also producing a powerful backlash from those brutalized or left behind by this new systemö (Friedman 1999).
The title of the book is purposeful. On a visit to a Lexus manufacturing plant, Friedman notices that some countries were trying to build a better Lexus while other nations were still wasting energy involved in maintaining traditional ways of life. The Lexus represents the forces of globalization against the olive tree that symbolizes a former way of life that is no longer viable. Friedman argues it is possible to keep these two forces in balance to minimize the conflict or tension produced by the ôLexus and the olive tree.ö We see s...