Globalization International Trade

Globalization is in high gear right now and it takes on many forms. Whether it be culture, trade, transportation and technology, the world is made much smaller given the modern methods, preferences and ease of communication of today's society. Even repressive countries like North Korea and Iran are having a hard time insulating themselves from the effects of globalization and this is becoming more and more obvious by the day. While concerns about culture and uniqueness of each country and its parts is a noble thing to consider, the people of societies should be able to absorb the culture, products and media that they wish because freedom should be a common thread of all countries and globalization is just one way in which that can manifest.

Questions Answered

Drivers of Globalization

As noted in the introduction, globalization is in full effect and modern technologies are major reason why. Even the last decade by itself has been revolutionary in terms of how global culture and world events have become. Drivers of this phenomenon include people that want their cause heard on a global state or at least outside of their own country. An example of this would be the recent revolutions in Egypt where Egyptians took to social media and internet, at least while they could, to proclaim the end of the Mubarak regime and then, subsequent to that, the deposing of Morsi. Even Morsi himself was involved in the social media kibitzing (Lawton, 2013). Another driver or globalization is spearheaded by businesses that want to reach out to new markets and create more customers and customer bases that products can be marketed and sold to (Hill, 2013). The populations of these countries are often very open to this even if sections of the population and/or the government have their...

As developed countries advance even further and other countries try to keep up, the heavy reliance on global trade and international consumer appetites will make this wave of change grow all the more stronger even if it is met with resistance or even violence by the government or disgruntled citizens.
Changing Nature of Global Economy

Given that the planet is getting much more accessible and smaller due to communication and transportation technologies advanced at the clip that they do, the global economy has begun to shape-shift as well. Once upon a time in the United States, everything was basically made and used within the United States unless the resources did not exist. Now, the United States imports a lot more and manufactures a lot less of what they used to and indeed the United States economy has shifted from a manufacturing-based juggernaut to a service/knowledge sector behemoth with a lot of the manufacturing being done in countries like Mexico and China.

However, manufacturing is not the only thing that has shifted within this changing global economy. Where companies go to fulfill their business needs has changed as well. A lot of work previously done in the United States and in Europe in the countries in which firms are based are now relying heavily on countries like India to save money on labor costs, much the same reason iPod's are made in China and not in the United States (Walter, 2012). This is done to push down costs and push up profit margins and many companies are effectively doing this outsourcing by necessity lest they fall behind their competitors that will do the outsourcing with no hesitation or regret.

Political & Economic Differences

To see the changing world more in focus, one…