This research paper summarizes the nature and origins as well as the principal impacts of, and reactions to, globalization. Globalization is the dynamic, interconnected, high velocity international economic regime which emerged during the last quarter of the 20th century. Like other economic processes in the past such as the rise of merchant capitalism or industrialization, it is inherently neither good nor bad but rather constitutes an ubiquitous reality which has profoundly disturbed and transformed the status quo and is itself undergoing an ongoing metamorphosis of uncertain dimensions.
Globalization was made possible by, and is a logical consequence of technological advances. According to Tharoor (2002, Winter), the dominant characteristics of the contemporary interconnected world economy at the turn of the 20th century is "ease of communications and travel, the flow of people of all nationalities and colors across the world, [and] the swift pulsing of financial transactions with the press of a button" (p. 66). A sweeping cycle of technological innovation facilitated the spread of globalization. The core inventions were the transistor and the integrated circuit which Dunn (1999, October 25) said "created whole new industries by packing electronic components onto a single silicon chip the size of a fingernail" and "powered the great postwar boom" (p. U 2). According to Friedman (1999), innovations in information technology and telecommunications "have steadily brought down the cost of a phone call and data transfers, while constantly increasing their speed, distance, and amounts of information that can be transmitted" (p. 42). Globalization involves a continuous and ever accelerating cycle or process of technological advance.
Globalization has been linked with the spread of free market capitalism but that only occurred because of the juxtaposition of extremely favorable political and economic forces. Globalization is not ne...