This book is highly recommended and is essential for anybody interested in globalization. The author has done a fairly good job of situating present-day globalization in its historical context. Ghemawat has incorporated into his theory the key research finding of globalization historians, namely that globalization is not an irreversible process and the world economy experienced a long period of de-globalization between 1914 and 1945.
The author knocks down the theories of Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist, who argued that we are now living in a fully globalized world in which neither distance nor national boundaries impact on commercial activity. Moreover Ghemawat shows that both sides of this debate are ill-informed. He calls the Friedman viewpoint “globaloney” and argues that while the importance of national boundaries has decreased a little bit in recent decades, borders still matter a great deal. Ghemawat describes the world as “semi-globalized”.
Also you can read this article published by the author on OpenMind: Semiglobalization and Strategy for a Post-Crisis World
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