Thomas Friedman's Globalization as An International System

Thesis: New York Times journalist, Thomas Friedman, maintains globalization is an international system only arrived at post Cold War. This new system also contains its own rules, and logic, and it influences our politics, environment, geopolitics, and economics for every country on the planet. Friedman thus notes the true international quality of our new economic system.

• Main difference between now and previous eras is the new degree and intensity with which the world is tied together into a single globalized marketplace.



• Previously, pre-1914, nations had been left out of globalization. It was now entirely global.



• New global system also different both technologically (previous era built around falling transportation costs, modern era built around falling telecommunications costs), and politically.



• Falling of tellecommunications costs makes success easier for smaller countries and even individuals.



• Globalization has replaced the Cold War as the defining international system (like the Cold War the new system has its own structure of power, has its own rules, has its own dominant ideas, has its own perspective on the globe, has its own defining technologies, has its own defining measurement, has its own defining anxiety).



• Nonetheless, Globalization stands almost completely opposite in many qualities.



• Cold War about division, Globalization about unity (unity aided by new technologies of communication)



• Driving idea of Globalization is free-market capitalism



• Globalization not "frozen," like Cold War system; rather, it is a dynamic ongoing process.



• Globalization has a culturally homogenous culture, as opposed to Cold War separation



• Globalization has defining technologies different and more advanced than those of the Cold War system



• Last, and most important, Globalization has its own defining structure of power that is much more complex than that of the Cold War system, which relied on the balance between the US and USSR.



• Balance of globalization resulted from 1. traditional balance between nation-states; 2. system lies between nation-states and global markets; 3. Balance of individuals and nation-states.