Globalization is making the world a better place

What we call “globalization,” one of the most powerful and positive forces ever to have arisen in the history of mankind, is redefining civilization as we know it. This is one of my hypotheses. To be more specific, I will try to describe what globalization is, its impact on world peace, and the freedom it brings from want, fear, and misery.

Globalization has six major characteristics: economic development, democracy, cultural enrichment, political and cultural norms, information, and internationalization of the rule of law.

Economic Development

Usually, globalization is described in terms of intensified commercial and trade exchanges, but it is about more than just trade, stock exchanges, and currencies. It is about people. What is significant today is that through globalization many nations are converging toward enhanced welfare.

This convergence is exemplified by the 800 million people who, in the past 30 years, have left poverty and misery behind. They have greater access to health care, schooling, and information. They have more choices, and their children will have even more choices. The absolutely remarkable part is that it happened not by accident but through a combination of good economic policy, technology, and management.

Of course, not all nations are following this path, but since the fall of the Berlin Wall, more and more are coming closer. Only Africa’s nations have yet to join, but who would have hoped and predicted 30 years ago that

China

and

India

, with such rapidity and efficiency, would pull their people out of misery? There is no reason why

Africa

, when its turn comes, will not do the same. Convergence should be a source of hope for us all.

Democracy

            In general, since 1989, the best system to improve the welfare of all people—not only economically, but also in terms of access to equality and freedom—appears to be democracy, the new international norm. As more and more countries turn democratic or converge toward democratic norms, respect for other cultures increases.

Democracy has guaranteed welfare far better than any dictatorship ever could. Even enlightened despots cannot bring the kind of safety democracy is bringing. Sometimes a trade-off between economic allotment and democracy occurs. Sometimes the economy grows more slowly because of democracy. Let it be that way. Democracy brings values that are as important for the welfare of the human being as economy is.

After all, as history shows, the chance of international war diminishes step by step any time a country moves from tyranny to democracy, as democracies do not war against one other. That more and more nations are turning democratic improves everyone’s way of life.

Cultural Enrichment

            Critics of globalization frequently charge that it results in an “Americanization of culture” and concomitant loss of identity and local cultural values. I would propose a more optimistic view, and that is that globalization leads to never-ending exchange of ideas, especially through popular culture, since it affects the greatest number of people.

Through popular culture, people from different backgrounds and nations discover one another, and their “otherness” suddenly disappears. For example, a popular Korean television sitcom now popular in

Japan

has shown its Japanese viewers that, like them, Koreans fall in love, feel despair, and harbor the same hopes and fears for themselves and for their children. This sitcom has transformed the image Japanese have of the Korean nation more profoundly than any number of diplomatic efforts and demonstrates that globalization can erode prejudices that have existed between neighboring countries for centuries.

Furthermore, this process of better understanding allows us to keep our identity and add new identities. The Koreans absorb a bit of the American culture, a bit of the French, a bit of other European societies. Perhaps they have become a different sort of Korean, but they remain Korean nonetheless. It is quite the illusion to think you can lose your identity. And it goes both ways. When you look at the success of cultural exports out of

Korea

—this so-called new wave through music, television, movies, and art—

Korea

becomes part of the identity of other people.

Now, as a Frenchman, I am a bit Korean myself. This is how globalization works. We do not lose our identity. We enter into the world that I call the world of multi-identity, and that is progress, not loss.

Political and Cultural Norms

            One of the most significant transformations in terms of welfare for the people in the globalized world is the increased respect given to the rights of women and minorities. In many nations, to be a woman or to belong to a minority has not been easy. In the past 30 years, however, women and minorities everywhere have become better informed and have learned that the repression they suffered until very recently is not typical in a modern democracy.

Let us consider

India

, where a strong caste system historically has subjugated women and untouchables. Thanks to the globalization of democratic norms, these minorities are better protected; through various affirmative action policies, they can access the better jobs that traditionally were forbidden to them. This transformation has positive consequences for them, of course, and also creates better outcomes for their children’s welfare and education. We are entering into a better world because of their improved status, thanks to the cultural and democratic exchanges generated by globalization.

Information

            Through legacy media and, more and more, through the Internet and cellular phones, everyone today, even in authoritarian countries, is better informed. For one year, I lived in the poorest part of

China

, and I remember well how a farmer, in the most remote village, knew exactly what was happening not only in the next village, but also in

Beijing

and

New York

because of the Internet and his cellular phone. No government can stop information now. People know today that, as they say, “knowledge is power.”

Now let us imagine if the genocide in

Darfur

had happened 20 or 30 years ago. The

Darfur

population would have been annihilated by the Sudanese government, and no one would have known. Today we all know about the genocide. The reason why the international community has been forced to intervene is because of the flood of information. Knowledge is proving to be the best protection for oppressed minorities and, thus, one of the most vital aspects of globalization.

Internationalization of the Rule of Law

            Internationalization of rule of law, of course, has limitations. The institutions in charge of this emerging rule of law, whether the United Nations or the World Trade Organization, are criticized. They are not completely legitimate. They are certainly not perfectly democratic, but you cannot build a democratic organization with non-democratic governments. It becomes a trade-off.

In spite of all the weaknesses of international organizations, the emergence of a real international rule of law replaces the pure barbarism that existed before, which had consisted of the most powerful against the weak. Even though globalization cannot suppress war, it is remarkably efficient at containing war. If you examine the kinds of wars we have today, compared to the history of mankind, the number of victims and number of nations involved are very few. We are all safer because of both this emerging rule of law and the flow of information provided by globalization.

Invented by Entrepreneurs

            We also need to remember that globalization is not some historical accident but has been devised and built by those who wanted it. Diplomats did not invent it. Entrepreneurs did.

Let us look at

Europe

. After World War II, the Europeans discovered that they had been their own worst enemies. For 1,000 years, we were fighting each other. Why? We do not remember very well. Every 30 years, we went to war. The French killed the Germans. The Germans killed the French. When you try to explain this history to your children, they cannot understand. Diplomats and politicians from the 18th century onward unsuccessfully made plans to avoid this kind of civil war within

Europe

.

Then, in the 1940s, a businessman came along named Jean Monnet. His business was to sell cognac in the

United States

, and he was very good at it. The idea Jean Monnet had was that perhaps the unification process of

Europe

should not be started by diplomats. Maybe it should be started by business people. He proceeded to build the European Union on a foundation of commerce. He started with coal and steel in 1950, and it was through the liberation of that trade that he conceived the unification of

Europe

, which has played a crucial role in the globalization process.

Monnet’s guiding principle was that commercial and financial ties would lead to political unification. The true basis of European solidarity has come through trade. Through this method, all of the benefits of globalization have been made possible, because free trade has been at the root level. An attack on free trade is an attack on both globalization and the welfare of the peoples of the world, so we must be very cautious when we discuss trade, as it is the essential key allowing the rest to happen.

None of this is to imply that trade is easy. In the case of

Europe

, it was made easier because all of the governments were democratic. It is much more complicated to build free trade with non-democratic governments, but because globalization starts with the construction of this materialistic solidarity, ideals must come afterwards.

Two Threats to Globalization

            Perhaps what I have presented so far is too optimistic a picture of globalization, but I believe we have good reason to be upbeat. However, there are two threats to globalization that may be taken too lightly today.

            Global epidemics. In terms of health care, we are more and more able to cope with the current illnesses of the world. Though

Africa

still poses a problem, through global efforts it will be possible in the years to come to reduce the major epidemics there: AIDS and malaria.

But new epidemics are threatening the world. If we remember what happened in

China

some years ago with the SARS epidemic, which was very short, and then the avian flu threat in 2005, you understand that there are new threats somewhere out there and that the modern world is not really prepared. One of the consequences of globalization is that people travel more, which means that viruses travel more and adapt.

Therefore, I think globalization should require the international community to develop ever more sophisticated systems to detect and cure the new epidemics that have been a negative consequence of globalization.

            Terrorism. Although wars these days are more limited, new forms of warfare have emerged, which we call terrorism. Terrorism today can seem like a distant menace somewhere between the

United States

and the

Middle East

. Because of the global progress of the rule of law, however, violent groups know that it is no longer possible to wage war in the traditional way; therefore, people driven by ideological passions are increasingly tempted by terrorist methods as a way of implementing their agenda.

Those are the true negative aspects of globalization: epidemics and terrorism. Regretfully, we are too focused on the traditional problems like free trade. We are not focused enough on the future threats.

I wish globalization were more popular, but it is our fault if it is not. Perhaps we should use different words. “Globalization” is ugly. We should find a better word, and we should try to explain to the media and students that we are entering into a new civilization of welfare, progress, and happiness, because if they do not understand the beauty of globalization, they will not stand up for it when it is threatened.

Comments

[Rédigé par : ETF]

Well cher Guy, joli texte toujours optimiste, qui laisse de côté (quelle surprise !) les effets sur l'écologie planétaire du grand boom mondial, et les périls liés à la démographie, qui sont pourtant des épreuves potentiellement plus ardues encore que le terrorisme et les épidémies.
In any case, because marketing is everything, pour remplacer le terme de "Globalisation", je vous propose celui d' « Unification ». Car ce à quoi nous assistons, c'est à une globalisation des échanges, certes, mais aussi, d’une manière plus générale, à une unification du monde, au point de vue politique, culturel, moral, linguistique, etc. « Unification » est moins menaçant qu'"intégration", moins effrayant que "globalisation" ou « mondialisation », et correspond bien à la réalité.
Nous assistons, au XXIe siècle, grâce aux avancées technologiques et à l’accélération des échanges, à l'Unification du Monde.
Nous vivons une époque formidable, non?!

[Rédigé par : guy Sorman]

Unification , pourquoi pas ? Avec un côté Teilhard de Chardin.

[Rédigé par : ETF]

Reste, bien entendu, un menu détail, que Teilhard de Chardin aurait sans doute eu à coeur de tenter de régler: la question des religions. Phénomène vraiment complexe, et imprévisible, comme le démontre ce début de XXIe siècle.

[Rédigé par : Avidadollars]

Merci Guy de cet excellent article. Mais j'avoue etre un peu las des discussions pour ou contre la "Globalization". La mondialisation est inevitable et s'y opposer equivaut a s'opposer aux levers du soleil ou a la loi de la gravite. C'est ridicule...

Mais il est vrai que face aux inanites que l'on peut lire ou entendre chez les Boves/anti-mondialistes et autres ecologistes (pourquoi "ecologistes" s'il ne sont en realite que des "gauchistes"?), il est important de remettre les pendules a l'heure avec des interventions comme la votre.

Merci de vous taper le sale boulot.

[Rédigé par : guy sorman]

"Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux" ( Albert Camus )

[Rédigé par : PaulNizan]

Avidadollars
"La mondialisation est inevitable et s'y opposer equivaut a s'opposer aux levers du soleil"
Guy Sorman
"Il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux" ( Albert Camus )

Sisyphe est souvent vu comme le symbole du soleil qui monte au matin puis descend sur l'horizon le soir venu...

=>La mondialisation est inevitable et s'y opposer equivaut à s'opposer à Guy Sorman donc...

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