Globalization: The Meaning, the Claims and the Reality

Few international developments have received as much attention since the closing years of the twentieth century as ‘globalization’. Yet it is clear from the rapidly growing literature on the subject, and the increasingly heated debate which it has stimulated, that there is little agreement about the meaning of the term, even less agreement about the processes that bring globalization about, and no agreement at all about its effects. As a result, the international community appears to be in the middle of major economic, cultural and institutional changes that are imperfectly understood despite the general feeling that their potentially far-reaching consequences deserve special attention.