Links and Views on Globalization: A Week in May 2009

I have been tied up in my new engagement in my “day job” of a consulting Enterprise Architect and got around to reviewing my RSS reader over the weekend. A few interesting but divergent perspectives on globalization stood out:
Cultural Perspectives:

Picture: NYT Blogs about the Curious Case of the Globalized Non-Barbies. In another corner of the globe, Indonesia is struggling with identifying the National Identity in a Globalized World

Political Perspective: YaleGlobal had an interesting view on India’s Election Shows Equitable Globalization Can Succeed. Democracy and development are winners in the election. Sadanand Dhume’s analysis sheds light on "The victory for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the mild- mannered economist credited with pioneering India's rejection of autarky and embrace of globalization nearly two decades ago, also feeds two other enduring debates: Do democracy and development go hand-in-hand? And can poor countries embrace the same bedrock democratic values-including religious pluralism and freedom of speech-as their richer counterparts? India's experience-unlike that of globalization's other poster child, China-suggests an affirmative answer to both questions. Despite the global downturn, the International Monetary Fund expects India's economy to grow by 5.1 % this year, and 6.5% next year, making it an engine of global economic recovery. Its conservatively regulated banks have escaped the Wall Street contagion. As for values, the second straight defeat of the Hindu nationalist BJP by the ardently multireligious Congress shows that pluralism, if properly nurtured, is a universal value and not merely a Western one."

Rethinking of Political perspectives: Global sourcing in a world less flat (What Matters, McKinsey), blogs “politics will matter—a lot—to the future of global sourcing. They always have, of course, but the relative stability of the late 1990s and early 2000s masked this reality. Looking to the future, public policies will influence the trajectory and pace of change across many variables commonly viewed as simply “economic.” On similar lines, Fairer Globalization: blogs Alas, We Are Not All Keynesians Now: "However, as the world confronts the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the idea that expanded trade will create and maintain jobs is losing support. The World Bank has forecast that in 2009 global industrial production could decline by 15 percent and world trade may record its largest decline in 80 years. Policymakers have not yet devised effective multilateral responses. Most countries have adopted a wide range of domestic strategies including domestic stimuli; make-work programs; buy-local policies; and sector-specific subsidies. . . However, while such strategies may not be protectionist in intent, they are not internationalist in their ends. Few policymakers appear to have considered how these strategies designed to restore domestic employment and growth might affect conditions abroad. Because they have eschewed collaboration, the fabric between global trade and national employment is increasingly frayed."

Footnote: Given these diverging perspectives and viewpoints, it is not surprising that the traditional globalization gurus are finding it hard to prophesize on what globalisation is going to mean to me and you, especially in the longer term. While that happens, the engines of globalization: business has not stopped idling. Supertankers in Singapore continue Waiting for work