Globalization: a Process of Change that Cannot be Stopped

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Globalization is defined as “the process by which the experience of everyday life, marked by the diffusion of commodities and ideas, is becoming standardized around the world,” and as “a process fueled by, and resulting in, increasing cross-border flows of goods, services, money, people, information, and culture.” Presently, globalization has been transpiring at a rather rapid rate. While this increased rate of globalization is a recent phenomenon, globalization has been happening long before the 1980s when its name first widely became used. Since this recent acceleration of globalization people have become fascinated with the process, and consequently there have been many people who believe that globalization can be stopped. Though they may bring up some relevant points, these people ultimately fail to see that globalization has been happening since at least the Age of Exploration (15th - 17th centuries). Moreover, these people fail to see globalization as what it truly is, a process of change. Though the rapid rate at which this change is currently happening is bound to slow down over time, globalization itself cannot be stopped at this point.
While it has been greatly argued during the last two decades that globalization is reversible, or that it can be stopped, these agreements tend to be faulty. These arguments tend to point to the years 1914-1944, the times during and between World War I and World War II, as proof that globalization can be undone. Prior to this period, the world had just experienced a large increase in the rate of globalization, propelled by remarkable technological and communication breakthroughs and marked by drastic increases in trade and convergent prices. However, after the war, countries began to ...

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