The term “SUPER” and the Globalization

Had a great day yesterday devoted totally towards upgrading my knowledge on the subject of Globalization. While trying to browse and peek about the books on this subject, I came across a great piece of work by Thomas. L. Friedman (the distinguished writer of “The World is flat”). This book which caught my attention was titled as “The Lexus and the Olive Tree”. In this master piece on the subject of Globalization, Friedman has very carefully and convincingly portrayed how the term Globalization evolved after the world war and how the system of globalization differs from the era of “The Cold War” which prevailed before and during the world war.

I wanted to share something very interesting from the sea of knowledge I gained after reading this book. Friedman says that today’s world is governed by three major forces:

· The Super Powers

· The Super Markets

· The Super Individuals

These terms sounds very creative and they actually have something very important related to the term Globalization and the modern world. Let me explain you what the author meant by this words:

Ø The Super Powers refers to those countries/nation which have a great influence on the worldly trades and systems. For Instance USA after the World War emerged as the Super Power and it continues to dominate the world’s trade.

Look at the situation today. For long the World bank Chief had been an American National (which was as a part of protocol), but today the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have opposed saying that the chief should be selected on the basis of potential not on the basis of nationality. Therefore in a global world the trade is influenced by the acts of the Global Super Powers.

Ø The Super Markets refers to the World’s important Stock markets which has the capabilities of influencing the global trade. For example: the stock markets of USA, China, Europe, India and many such important nations. If any of this stock markets collapse, it will influence the global investments. For instance, when the Thai Currency - Baht was fluctuated the world market got influenced and the economic instability was seen in countries like Russia and Brazil because of the collapse in Thailand’s Stock Market.

Ø The Super Individuals refers to the individuals who can influence mass majority. For example a millionaire named Osama Bin Laden moved USA by his terrorist attacks. An individual in India named Anna Hazare started a great movement against corruption which did impact the Indian stock markets. Obama’s visit to India recently saw a great move in Indian stock market.

One will never understand the term globalization or the front page of morning financial newspapers unless one see it as a complex interaction between this three actors : Super power bumping up at super power, Super market influencing the super powers, super markets and super individual influencing the super power and vice verse.

Regards,

Rohit Tiwari