Connectivity, integration, and interdependence
By Kirtimaya Varma, Editor-in-ChiefI was recently reading
City of God by Saint Augustine (354-430 AD). What struck me the most in the book was not the tangled dynamics of the human fall but Augustine’s concept of globalization. The Harvard Business School professor Theodor Levitt is credited with introducing this concept in 1944, though it inundated human consciousness only in the mid-1990s. Augustine talks about globalization of sins, while Levitt talks about globalization of trade. According to Augustine, the continual interplay of fallen motives is enough to create the entire structure of human affairs that we know as the fallen “world system.” Mark the words
world system. While elaborating on the mechanics of the original sin, he takes us into the inner workings of what he calls the “Earthly City,” as distinguished from the “City of God.”
His expression “Earthly City” immediately brought to my mind the term “global village,” coined by Wyndham Lewis in the book
America and Cosmic Man (1949) and popularized by Marshall McLuhan in the book
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962).
CONTINUITY OF GLOBALIZATIONSome scholars trace the continuity of globalization to pre-Levitt periods. The expansion of European trade during the 16th and 17th centuries; the British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish empires extending all over the world; the integration of trade along the Silk Route in the Mongol Empire; the formation in the 17th century of the Dutch East India Company described as the first MNC enabling joint ownership through issue of shares were all facets of globalization. But, I must admit, I was taken aback to discover the concepts of “globalization” and “global village” elaborated clearly in a book written 1,600 years ago!
There are those who support globalization, and those who oppose it. Both the sides have strong reasons.
However, both the sides agree that only global efforts can solve some of the problems the modern world faces, such as terrorism, global warming, and pollution. Is it merely a coincidence that St. Augustine talked about globalization of sins, or is it that the great sage could see centuries ahead of his times?
Among the first opponents of globalization were the Russians. In
Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) Lenin said that globalization entailed exploitation of the Third World by the First World. This paper still forms the basis of critiques of globalization in some countries. The latest opponents of globalization are the Americans. A CNN survey in 2007 found that 95% of Americans were not in favor of globalization because they believed it cut down jobs in the First World and transferred them to the Third World (exploitation of the First World by the Third World?).
Here I would like to make two points. First, it was the Americans who made globalization a global phenomenon. The Third World economies were highly protected three-four decades ago. The Americans persuaded Third World governments to open up their economies. The Americans became so much identified with globalization that critics of globalization would often term it as a form of Americanization. Second, contrary to popular perception, the most globalized countries in the world are from the First World, not the Third World. A Swiss think-tank KOF studied 122 countries over the period 1970-2004 measuring identifiable parameters of globalization. According to its index, the world’s most globalized country is Belgium, followed by Austria, Sweden, the UK, and the Netherlands, and the least globalized countries are Haiti, Myanmar, the Central African Republic, and Burundi. A. T. Kearney and
Foreign Policy magazine made yet another study. According to their 2006 Globalization Index, Singapore was the most globalized country, followed by Ireland, Switzerland, the US, Canada, and Denmark, while the least globalized ones were Egypt, Indonesia, India, and Iran.
If Augustine’s globalization had a sin perspective, Levitt’s and McLuhan’s globalization has a market perspective. Would it be too utopian on my part to believe that some day globalization will evolve to have a political perspective and there will be a world parliament under the auspices of the UN to deal with globalization issues? The extreme popularity of Wendell Willkie’s book
One World in the 1940s shows that such utopian ideas could be a part of common dreams. Of all the definitions of globalization I’ve come across, the one I like the most is that given by
Wikipedia: “Globalization refers to increasing global connectivity, integration, and interdependence in the economic, social, technological, cultural, political, and economical spheres.”
CHINDIA POLICYGlobalization is already changing the mindset and making managers think in terms of units larger than nations. For instance, a book titled
Making Sense of Chindia by the Indian economist Jairam Ramesh exhorts managers to think in terms of Chindia—a telescopic word formed by combining China and
India. China and India may not have the best of relationship; yet, they are coming closer and closer in the minds of managers, who increasingly feel that the best way to maximize profit from the two emerging economic superpowers is to see them together. Who knows what great significance such mental proximity could lead to? The changes that globalization is bringing about are not in a vacuum, but feed through diversities of nations, races, religions, ethnicity, colors, etc. in search of a unity.
Meanwhile, we thank our readers for the enthusiasm with which they received the inaugural issue of
Electronics Asia last year. Our readers’ faith in us was vindicated when
Electronics Asia was chosen for merit award in the “Best new launch of a local title category” of the Asian Publishing Management Awards 2007. There were 79 entries from 26 companies in six countries vying for the awards.
In this issue once again we quantify for you the developments in various electronics segments with a regional focus on Asia-Pacific to enable you make your strategies for the region. The expert comments from industry leaders and research analysts add to the industry perspectives we offer.
