The Puzzle of Twenty-First-Century Globalization explores the opportunities and challenges of our international economic system. Patrice Franko and Stephen Stamos clearly trace how the ways we produce, finance, and trade goods and services are profoundly shaped by technologies of communication, transportation, and trade. Globalization encourages hyper-specialization—lavishly rewarding those with the skill sets to serve the global marketplace and punishing those poorly positioned to compete. Globalized systems have created great prosperity—along with instability, vulnerability, and backlash. Few genuinely understand the complex underpinnings of our international economic system—and these specialists tend to operate in isolated silos of finance, trade, and production. But without appreciating how systems come together, we cannot explain political reactions against the costs of globalization such as the Brexit vote or the rise of Donald Trump. We don’t value the changing geo-economic importance of the developing world nor the deep threat to ecosystems. This book is the first to emphasize the interrelated economic aspects of globalization from an interdisciplinary perspective. By placing an introduction to trade, finance, and multinational production in the same text that discusses the changing role of developing countries and the challenges to the environment, the authors provide the novice with the basics to understand the global economy while also challenging advanced students to appreciate global connectivity. Closing the knowledge gap in international economics, the authors present the historical context, interdisciplinary grounding, and competing political perspectivesneededto encourage sound critical thinking around contemporary globalization. They provide the essential global economic tools to equip all readers to make decisions that may foster a fairer, more sustainable global system.

This book provides a clear and concise toolkit to understand how trade, finance, and production bind us in a globally connected international system. Presenting both the theory and the evidence needed to understand economic globalization, this essential primer helps readers understand the character and contradictions of the global economy.

Explores globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political.

Winner of the first Paul A. Baran-Paul M. Sweezy Memorial Award for an original monograph concerned with the political economy of imperialism, John Smith's Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century is a seminal examination of the relationship between the core capitalist countries and the rest of the world in the age of neoliberal globalization.Deploying a sophisticated Marxist methodology, Smith begins by tracing the production of certain iconic commodities-the T-shirt, the cup of coffee, and the iPhone-and demonstrates how these generate enormous outflows of money from the countries of the Global South to transnational corporations headquartered in the core capitalist nations of the Global North. From there, Smith draws on his empirical findings to powerfully theorize the current shape of imperialism. He argues that the core capitalist countries need no longer rely on military force and colonialism (although these still occur) but increasingly are able to extract profits from workers in the Global South through market mechanisms and, by aggressively favoring places with lower wages, the phenomenon of labor arbitrage. Meticulously researched and forcefully argued, Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century is a major contribution to the theorization and critique of global capitalism.

Globalization is an ongoing and pervasive phenomenon which is redefining the economic, social and cultural dynamics of contemporary societies. Increased interconnection between nations through expanding political ties and greater economic and cultural integration, combined with expanding global wealth has resulted in greater interaction between diverse countries across the globe. The process of globalization is generally considered a beneficial one, but it is also viewed in some quarters as a threat to national sovereignty and indigenous culture. Furthermore, although globalization has largely arisen as a result of a more stable and secure world, the factors that have contributed to its rise also assist factions that are interested in destabilizing the world. Without global integration, terrorist groups, for example, would find it much more difficult to unobtrusively communicate, travel, and transfer money and materials. Globalization has also facilitated illegal international trade, be it in materials, people or money. In order to contribute to the ever-expanding debate concerning the impact of globalization on global development, the ECSSR hosted a specialized conference under the title Globalization in the 21st Century: How Interconnected is the World? in Abu Dhabi on April 23–25, 2007. Visiting experts at the conference were invited to share their views on globalization and to examine the phenomenon, thus introducing as many perspectives as possible. The conference speakers hail from diverse academic, professional and decision-making backgrounds and represent a broad range of opinions and a high level of expertise. This volume is a valuable collection of these expert views, covering: globalization and its economic foundations and manifestations; migration and freedom of mobility; the social implications of globalization; politics in a globalized international system; new security threats resulting from globalization; and evolving national and commercial global responsibilities.

This book offers an in-depth exploration of all dimensions of geoeconomics, including the internal and international forces which explain why most countries remain mired in poverty; the conflicts between the poor on the rich countries; and the global environmental crises threatening the future of humanity.

This book examines the development and transformation of global capitalism in the late 20th and early 21st century. It analyzes the dynamics and contradictions of the global political economy through a comparative-historical approach based on class analysis. After providing a critical overview of neoliberal capitalist globalization over the past three decades, the book examines the emergence of new forces on the global scene and discusses the prospects of change in the global economy in a multi-polar direction in the decades ahead. The book concludes by focusing on the mass movements that are playing a central role in bringing about the transformation of global capitalism.