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95-494: Divided into three parts, the first, entitled "A Chthonic Imperative? Religion and Nature in the Modern World" contained papers from scholars such as Peter Beyer, Steven Sutcliffe and Wouter J. Hanegraaff and dealt with the relationship between contemporary Paganism and various features of contemporary society, such as globalisation and the secularisation of the natural world. The second part, entitled "The Pagan Alternative:

190-409: A computer without regard to location. This included accounting, software development, and engineering design. Student exchange programs became popular after World War II , and are intended to increase the participants' understanding and tolerance of other cultures, as well as improving their language skills and broadening their social horizons. Between 1963 and 2006 the number of students studying in

285-402: A continuum with the local, national and regional. At one end of the continuum lie social and economic relations and networks which are organized on a local and/or national basis; at the other end lie social and economic relations and networks which crystallize on the wider scale of regional and global interactions. Globalization can refer to those spatial-temporal processes of change which underpin

380-468: A foreign country increased 9 times. Since the 1980s, modern globalization has spread rapidly through the expansion of capitalism and neoliberal ideologies. The implementation of neoliberal policies has allowed for the privatization of public industry, deregulation of laws or policies that interfered with the free flow of the market, as well as cut-backs to governmental social services. These neoliberal policies were introduced to many developing countries in

475-433: A full nuclear attack. Despite advances in their efficacy, Anti-ballistic missiles are often viewed as an additional piece to modern day diplomacy where concepts such as Mutual assured destruction (MAD) and treaties such as that between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev following their Reykjavík Summit . Alongside continued research defensive countermeasures there has been a proliferation of nuclear weapons around

570-673: A positive or a negative phenomenon. Economic globalization comprises: globalization of production; which refers to the obtainment of goods and services from a particular source from locations around the globe to benefit from difference in cost and quality. Likewise, it also comprises globalization of markets; which is defined as the union of different and separate markets into a massive global marketplace. Economic globalization also includes competition, technology, and corporations and industries. Current globalization trends can be largely accounted for by developed economies integrating with less developed economies by means of foreign direct investment ,

665-682: A series of agreements to remove trade restrictions. GATT's successor was the World Trade Organization (WTO), which provided a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements and a dispute resolution process. Exports nearly doubled from 8.5% of total gross world product in 1970 to 16.2% in 2001. The approach of using global agreements to advance trade stumbled with the failure of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiation. Many countries then shifted to bilateral or smaller multilateral agreements, such as

760-580: A series of geopolitical earthquakes have taken place, but it is not yet clear how these upheavals have rearranged the landscape that lies before us. During the Cold War, much of the policy and the infrastructure of the Western world and the Eastern Bloc had revolved around the capitalist and communist ideologies, respectively, and the possibility of a nuclear warfare . The end of the Cold War and

855-413: A state is not dependent on another, then there is no way for either state to be mutually affected by the other. This is one of the driving forces behind global connections and trade; without either, globalization would not have emerged the way it did and states would still be dependent on their own production and resources to work. This is one of the arguments surrounding the idea of early globalization. It

950-443: A stateless corporation. A free-trade area is the region encompassing a trade bloc whose member countries have signed a free-trade agreement (FTA). Such agreements involve cooperation between at least two countries to reduce trade barriers – import quotas and tariffs  – and to increase trade of goods and services with each other. Post%E2%80%93Cold War era The post –Cold War era

1045-525: A third of the world's human population—have used the services of the Internet. Growth of globalization has never been smooth. One influential event was the late 2000s recession , which was associated with lower growth (in areas such as cross-border phone calls and Skype usage) or even temporarily negative growth (in areas such as trade) of global interconnectedness. The China–United States trade war , starting in 2018, negatively affected trade between

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1140-485: A transformation in the organization of human affairs by linking together and expanding human activity across regions and continents. Without reference to such expansive spatial connections, there can be no clear or coherent formulation of this term. ... A satisfactory definition of globalization must capture each of these elements: extensity (stretching), intensity, velocity and impact. Held and his co-writers' definition of globalization in that same book as "transformation in

1235-559: A victory of democracy and capitalism which became a manner of collective self-validation for countries hoping to gain international respect. With democracy being seen as an important value, more countries began adopting that value . Communism ended also in Mongolia , Congo , Albania , Yugoslavia , Afghanistan , and Angola . As of 2023, only five countries in the world are still ruled as communist states: China, Cuba , North Korea , Laos , and Vietnam . The United States, having become

1330-585: A widely felt awareness of ecological crisis." The anthology's opening paper was written by Peter Beyer, then an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa , Canada, and the author of the book Religion and Globalization (1994). In this paper, Beyer delved the definition of " nature religion " developed by the American religious studies scholar Catherine Albanese, looking at those religious movements whose "devotees consider nature to be

1425-637: Is a period of history that follows the end of the Cold War , which represents history after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. This period saw many former Soviet republics become sovereign nations, as well as the introduction of market economies in eastern Europe. This period also marked the United States becoming the world's sole superpower. Relative to the Cold War,

1520-405: Is agency-extended globalization, the circulation of agents of different institutions, organizations, and polities , including imperial agents. Object-extended globalization, a third form, is the movement of commodities and other objects of exchange. He calls the transmission of ideas, images, knowledge, and information across world-space disembodied globalization, maintaining that it is currently

1615-469: Is argued that archaic globalization did not function in a similar manner to modern globalization because states were not as interdependent on others as they are today. Also posited is a "multi-polar" nature to archaic globalization, which involved the active participation of non-Europeans. Because it predated the Great Divergence in the nineteenth century, where Western Europe pulled ahead of

1710-450: Is filled with a range of norms , claims, beliefs, and narratives about the phenomenon itself. James and Steger stated that the concept of globalization "emerged from the intersection of four interrelated sets of ' communities of practice ' ( Wenger , 1998): academics, journalists, publishers/editors, and librarians." They note the term was used "in education to describe the global life of the mind"; in international relations to describe

1805-831: Is stronger among the oppressed, such as those indigenous communities who adhere to nature religionist beliefs. Beyer's paper was followed by that provided by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, then a research associate at the University of Utrecht and the author of New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mind of Secular Thought (1996). Globalisation 1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville  ·  Marx ·  Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto ·  Tönnies · Veblen ·  Simmel · Durkheim ·  Addams ·  Mead · Weber ·  Du Bois ·  Mannheim · Elias Globalization ( North American spelling ; also Oxford spelling [UK]) or globalisation (non-Oxford British spelling ; see spelling differences )

1900-399: Is the process of interaction and integration among people, companies, and governments worldwide. The term globalization first appeared in the early 20th century (supplanting an earlier French term mondialisation ), developed its current meaning sometime in the second half of the 20th century, and came into popular use in the 1990s to describe the unprecedented international connectivity of

1995-409: Is used to refer to the fear of globalization, though it can also mean the fear of balloons . There are both distal and proximate causes which can be traced in the historical factors affecting globalization. Large-scale globalization began in the 19th century. Archaic globalization conventionally refers to a phase in the history of globalization including globalizing events and developments from

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2090-583: The Cold War went mostly officially unacknowledged, even when some, such as El Salvador and Argentina , resulted in extensive human rights violations. The end of the Cold War allowed many technologies that had been off limits to the public to be declassified . The most important of these is the Internet, which was created as ARPANET by the Pentagon as a system to keep in touch after an impending nuclear war. The last restrictions on commercial enterprise online were lifted in 1995. The commercialization of

2185-748: The East . Without the spread of traditional ideas from the East, Western globalization would not have emerged the way it did. The interactions of states were not on a global scale and most often were confined to Asia, North Africa , the Middle East , and certain parts of Europe. With early globalization, it was difficult for states to interact with others that were not close. Eventually, technological advances allowed states to learn of others' existence and thus another phase of globalization can occur. The third has to do with inter-dependency, stability, and regularity. If

2280-519: The Great Recession . New opposing views from some economists have argued such trends are a result of price drops and in actuality, trade volume is increasing, especially with agricultural products, natural resources and refined petroleum. Economic globalization is the increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world through a rapid increase in cross- border movement of goods, services, technology, and capital. Whereas

2375-621: The Indus Valley civilization in the third millennium BCE . This archaic globalization existed during the Hellenistic Age , when commercialized urban centers enveloped the axis of Greek culture that reached from India to Spain, including Alexandria and the other Alexandrine cities. Early on, the geographic position of Greece and the necessity of importing wheat forced the Greeks to engage in maritime trade. Trade in ancient Greece

2470-951: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) identified four basic aspects of globalization: trade and transactions , capital and investment movements, migration and movement of people, and the dissemination of knowledge. Globalizing processes affect and are affected by business and work organization, economics, sociocultural resources, and the natural environment. Academic literature commonly divides globalization into three major areas: economic globalization , cultural globalization , and political globalization . Proponents of globalization point to economic growth and broader societal development as benefits, while opponents claim globalizing processes are detrimental to social well-being due to ethnocentrism , environmental consequences, and other potential drawbacks. Between 1990 and 2010, globalisation progressed rapidly, driven by

2565-503: The International Organization for Standardization , which is composed of representatives from various national standards organizations . A multinational corporation , or worldwide enterprise, is an organization that owns or controls the production of goods or services in one or more countries other than their home country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation, a transnational corporation, or

2660-599: The September 11 attacks and the initiation of the War on Terror in 2001. Accompanying NATO expansion, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) systems were installed in Eastern Europe. However, from a relatively-weak developing country , China appeared as a fledgling emerging superpower . That created new potential for worldwide conflict. In response to the rise of China, the United States has strategically "rebalanced" to

2755-668: The Soviet Union . Jodrell Bank and other observatories like it have since been used to track Space probes as well as investigate Quasars , Pulsars , and Meteoroids . Satellites such as the Vela (satellite) that were originally launched to detect nuclear detonation following the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty have been used since then to discover and further investigate Gamma-ray bursts . Second Cold War can refer to higher geopolitical tensions in

2850-713: The Thirty Years' War , and demand for commodities, most particularly slaves . The triangular trade made it possible for Europe to take advantage of resources within the Western Hemisphere . The transfer of animal stocks, plant crops, and epidemic diseases associated with Alfred W. Crosby 's concept of the Columbian exchange also played a central role in this process. European, Middle Eastern, Indian, Southeast Asian , and Chinese merchants were all involved in early modern trade and communications, particularly in

2945-459: The University of Aberdeen and an early writer in the field, described globalization as "the compression of the world and the intensification of the consciousness of the world as a whole." In Global Transformations , David Held and his co-writers state: Although in its simplistic sense globalization refers to the widening, deepening and speeding up of global interconnection, such a definition begs further elaboration. ... Globalization can be on

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3040-428: The developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs). As economic integration intensified workers moved to areas with higher wages and most of the developing world oriented toward the international market economy. The collapse of the Soviet Union not only ended the Cold War's division of the world – it also left the United States its sole policeman and an unfettered advocate of free market. It also resulted in

3135-481: The fall of the Soviet Union , but some historians date the end of the Cold War to the Revolutions of 1989 or they date it to the signing of the world's first nuclear disarmament treaty, which occurred in 1987. Ronald Reagan 's campaign for the U.S. presidency in 1980 was focused on the rebuilding of the country. Over the next couple of years, the economy was recovering, new foreign policies were implemented, and

3230-411: The history of globalization , and of modern globalization. Economically, globalization involves goods, services , data, technology, and the economic resources of capital . The expansion of global markets liberalizes the economic activities of the exchange of goods and funds. Removal of cross-border trade barriers has made the formation of global markets more feasible. Advances in transportation, like

3325-488: The post–Cold War world . Its origins can be traced back to 18th and 19th centuries due to advances in transportation and communications technology . This increase in global interactions has caused a growth in international trade and the exchange of ideas, beliefs, and culture. Globalization is primarily an economic process of interaction and integration that is associated with social and cultural aspects. However, disputes and international diplomacy are also large parts of

3420-518: The steam locomotive , steamship , jet engine , and container ships , and developments in telecommunication infrastructure such as the telegraph , the Internet , mobile phones , and smartphones , have been major factors in globalization and have generated further interdependence of economic and cultural activities around the globe. Though many scholars place the origins of globalization in modern times , others trace its history to long before

3515-558: The 17th century, world trade developed further when chartered companies like the British East India Company (founded in 1600) and the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602, often described as the first multinational corporation in which stock was offered) were established. An alternative view from historians Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giraldez, postulated that: globalization began with

3610-422: The 1980s and 1990s. The revolutions of 1989 and subsequent liberalization in many parts of the world resulted in a significant expansion of global interconnectedness. The migration and movement of people can also be highlighted as a prominent feature of the globalization process. In the period between 1965 and 1990, the proportion of the labor force migrating approximately doubled. Most migration occurred between

3705-493: The 19th century, steamships reduced the cost of international transportation significantly and railroads made inland transportation cheaper. The transportation revolution occurred some time between 1820 and 1850. More nations embraced international trade . Globalization in this period was decisively shaped by nineteenth-century imperialism such as in Africa and Asia . The invention of shipping containers in 1956 helped advance

3800-403: The 2011 United States–Korea Free Trade Agreement . Since the 1970s, aviation has become increasingly affordable to middle classes in developed countries . Open skies policies and low-cost carriers have helped to bring competition to the market . In the 1990s, the growth of low-cost communication networks cut the cost of communicating between countries. More work can be performed using

3895-587: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine included a blockade of Ukrainian ports and international sanctions on Russia , resulting in some de-coupling of the Russian economy with global trade, especially with the European Union and other Western countries. Modern consensus for the last 15 years regards globalization as having run its course and gone into decline. A common argument for this is that trade has dropped since its peak in 2008, and never recovered since

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3990-587: The Asia-Pacific region, though at the same time, began to retreat from international commitments. The end of the Cold War also coincided with the end of apartheid in South Africa. Declining Cold War tensions in the later years of the 1980s meant that the apartheid regime was no longer supported by the West because of its anticommunism , but it was now condemned with an embargo . In 1990, Nelson Mandela

4085-581: The Asia-Pacific region. Major crises of the period included the Gulf War , Yugoslav Wars , the First and Second Congo Wars , First and Second Chechen War , September 11 attacks , War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) , Iraq War , Russo-Georgian War , the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war . It has been argued that the war on terror —whose wars in some ways connect to some of

4180-409: The Cold War ended. We are at one of those rare points of 'punctuation' in history at which old patterns of stability have broken up and new ones have not yet emerged to take their place. Historians will certainly regard the years 1989–1991 as a turning point comparable in importance to the years 1789–1794, or 1917–1918, or 1945–1947; precisely what has 'turned,' however, is much less certain. We know that

4275-568: The European Age of Discovery and voyages to the New World , and some even to the third millennium BCE. Large-scale globalization began in the 1820s, and in the late 19th century and early 20th century drove a rapid expansion in the connectivity of the world's economies and cultures. The term global city was subsequently popularized by sociologist Saskia Sassen in her work The Global City: New York, London, Tokyo (1991). In 2000,

4370-640: The Goddess and Nature", contained papers by Prudence Jones, Ronald Hutton , Susan Greenwood, Elizabeth Puttick and Geoffrey Samuel dealing with the role of goddess figures in the Pagan movement. Finally, the third part of the book, entitled "Nature Religion in Practice", contained articles by Jone Salomonsen, Philip Shallcrass, Vivianne Crowley and Alastair McIntosh dealing with the various religious practices of Pagans. The first international academic conference on

4465-618: The Indian Ocean region. According to economic historians Kevin H. O'Rourke , Leandro Prados de la Escosura, and Guillaume Daudin, several factors promoted globalization in the period 1815–1870: During the 19th century, globalization approached its form as a direct result of the Industrial Revolution . Industrialization allowed standardized production of household items using economies of scale while rapid population growth created sustained demand for commodities. In

4560-405: The Internet and the growth of the mobile phone system increased globalization (as well as nationalism and populism in reaction). In the years since then, the Internet's population and usefulness have grown immensely. Only about 20 million people (less than 0.5 percent of the world's population at the time) were online in 1995, mostly in the United States and several other Western countries. By

4655-621: The NATO command . Russia formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization to replace the dissolved Warsaw Pact , established a strategic partnership with China and several other countries, and entered the non-military organizations SCO and BRICS . Both latter organizations included China, which is a fast rising power . Reacting to the rise of China, the Obama administration rebalanced strategic forces to

4750-659: The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev (in office 16 June 1977 – 10 November 1982), reducing the tension between the US and USSR was necessary to focus on fixing economic issues in the USSR. He theorized that rebuilding the USSR would ensure greater economic competition with the US. At the dawn of the post–Cold War era, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis wrote that the characteristics of

4845-575: The Silk Routes. In addition to economic trade, the Silk Road served as a means of carrying out cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. The movement of people, such as refugees, artists, craftsmen, missionaries , robbers, and envoys, resulted in the exchange of religions, art, languages, and new technologies. From around 3000 BCE to 1000 CE, connectivity within Afro-Eurasia

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4940-578: The World Bank and the IMF to become global financial market regulators that would promote neoliberalism and the creation of free markets for multinational corporations on a global scale. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the connectedness of the world's economies and cultures grew very quickly. This slowed down from the 1910s onward due to the World Wars and the Cold War , but picked up again in

5035-414: The dominant form of globalization. James holds that this series of distinctions allows for an understanding of how, today, the most embodied forms of globalization such as the movement of refugees and migrants are increasingly restricted, while the most disembodied forms such as the circulation of financial instruments and codes are the most deregulated . The journalist Thomas L. Friedman popularized

5130-435: The early 1990s and caused the bicycle to decline as a form of transport by 2000. The move to capitalism has increased the economic prosperity of China, but many people still live in poor conditions and work for companies for very low wages and in dangerous and poor conditions. Many other Third World countries had seen involvement from the United States and/or the Soviet Union , but solved their political conflicts because of

5225-420: The embodiment of divinity, sacredness, transcendence, spiritual power, or whatever cognate term one wishes to use". Proceeding to provide a basic summary of globalisation , he then made a brief discussion of how the two interact, arguing that nature religions had a tendency to develop a counter-structural strategy in dealing with globalising forces. In this manner they emphasise the idea that spiritual authenticity

5320-450: The emergence of a transnational élite and a phasing out of the nation-state . Meanwhile, he used "cultural globalization" to reference the worldwide homogenization of culture. Other of his usages included " ideological globalization", " technological globalization", and "social globalization". Lechner and Boli (2012) define globalization as more people across large distances becoming connected in more and different ways. "Globophobia"

5415-498: The extension of the European Common Market , and in journalism to describe how the "American Negro and his problem are taking on a global significance". They have also argued that four forms of globalization can be distinguished that complement and cut across the solely empirical dimensions. According to James, the oldest dominant form of globalization is embodied globalization, the movement of people. A second form

5510-489: The fall of the Soviet Union caused profound changes in nearly every society in the world. It enabled renewed attention to be paid to matters that were ignored during the Cold War and has paved the way for greater international cooperation, international organizations , and nationalist movements. The European Union expanded and further integrated, and power shifted from the G7 to the larger G20 economies. The outcome symbolized

5605-509: The first circumnavigation of the globe under the Magellan-Elcano expedition which preluded the rise of global silver trade . Early modern globalization is distinguished from modern globalization on the basis of expansionism , the method of managing global trade, and the level of information exchange. The period is marked by the shift of hegemony to Western Europe, the rise of larger-scale conflicts between powerful nations such as

5700-500: The form of structural adjustment programs (SAPs) that were implemented by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). These programs required that the country receiving monetary aid would open its markets to capitalism, privatize public industry, allow free trade, cut social services like healthcare and education and allow the free movement of giant multinational corporations. These programs allowed

5795-423: The globalization of business is centered around the diminution of international trade regulations as well as tariffs , taxes, and other impediments that suppresses global trade, economic globalization is the process of increasing economic integration between countries, leading to the emergence of a global marketplace or a single world market. Depending on the paradigm, economic globalization can be viewed as either

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5890-581: The globalization of commerce. After World War II, work by politicians led to the agreements of the Bretton Woods Conference , in which major governments laid down the framework for international monetary policy , commerce, and finance, and the founding of several international institutions intended to facilitate economic growth by lowering trade barriers . Initially, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) led to

5985-521: The great chagrin of Reactionists, it has drawn from under the feet of industry the national ground on which it stood. All old-established national industries have been destroyed or are daily being destroyed. . . . In place of the old local and national seclusion and self-sufficiency, we have intercourse in every direction, universal inter-dependence of nations. Sociologists Martin Albrow and Elizabeth King define globalization as "all those processes by which

6080-440: The great movements of trade and empire across Asia and the Indian Ocean from the 15th century onward. In 1848, Karl Marx noticed the increasing level of national inter-dependence brought on by capitalism , and predicted the universal character of the modern world society. He states: The bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country. To

6175-500: The growing prominence of attention focused on the movement of diseases, the proliferation of popular culture and consumer values, the growing prominence of international institutions like the UN, and concerted international action on such issues as the environment and human rights. Other developments as dramatic were the Internet's becoming influential in connecting people across the world; As of June 2012 , more than 2.4 billion people—over

6270-534: The historically variable ways that it has been practiced and socially understood through changing world-time. Manfred Steger , professor of global studies and research leader in the Global Cities Institute at RMIT University , identifies four main empirical dimensions of globalization : economic, political, cultural, and ecological . A fifth dimension—the ideological—cutting across the other four. The ideological dimension, according to Steger,

6365-459: The information and communication technology revolution that lowered communication costs, along with trade liberalisation and the shift of manufacturing operations to emerging economies (particularly China). The word globalization was used in the English language as early as the 1930s, but only in the context of education, and the term failed to gain traction. Over the next few decades, the term

6460-703: The late 1970s and faced public anger after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 in Beijing, moved even more quickly towards free-market economics in the 1990s. McDonald's and Pizza Hut both entered the country in the second half of 1990, the first American chains in China, aside from Kentucky Fried Chicken , which had entered in 1987. Stock markets were established in Shenzhen and Shanghai in late 1990 as well. Restrictions on car ownership were loosened in

6555-466: The market was booming with independence. By contrast, the Soviet Union's economy was declining, its military power was declining, and the Soviet leaders overestimated the amount of influence which they had in the world. The United States' newfound superpower status allowed American authorities to better engage in negotiations with the Soviet, including terms that would favor the U.S. According to Chairman of

6650-610: The mid-2010s, more than a third of the world's population was online. Further research continued into other Cold War technologies with the declassification of the Internet. While Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative proved untenable in its original form, the system lives on in a redesigned state as the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). Countermeasures such as BMDS continue to be explored and improved upon post Cold War , but are often criticized for being unable to effectively stop

6745-407: The new era are not yet certain but he was certain that the characteristics of it would be very different from the characteristics of the Cold War era, which meant that a turning point of world-historical significance took place: The new world of the post–Cold War era is likely to have few, if any, of these [Cold War] characteristics: that is an indication of how much things have already changed since

6840-505: The only global superpower, used that ideological victory to reinforce its leadership position in the new world order. It claimed "the United States and its allies are on the right side of history." This new world order is referred to as "liberal hegemony" in international relations theory. Using the peace dividend , the United States military was able to cut much of its expenditure, but the level rose again to comparable heights after

6935-542: The other hand, benefited from the fall of the Soviet Union. As capitalism had "won," as people saw it, socialism and communism in general declined in popularity. Social Democrats in Scandinavia privatized many of their institutions in the 1990s, and a political debate on modern economics was reopened. Scandinavian nations are often now seen as social democrat (see Nordic model ). The People's Republic of China, which had started to move towards capitalism in

7030-409: The people of the world are incorporated into a single world society." In The Consequences of Modernity , Anthony Giddens writes: "Globalization can thus be defined as the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa." In 1992, Roland Robertson , professor of sociology at

7125-466: The period is characterized by stabilization and disarmament. Both the United States and Russia significantly reduced their nuclear stockpiles . The former Eastern Bloc became democratic and was integrated into the world economy. Most of former Soviet satellites and three former Baltic Republics were integrated into the European Union and NATO . In the first two decades of the period, NATO underwent three series of enlargement and France reintegrated into

7220-605: The phase of increasing trade links and cultural exchange that characterized the period immediately preceding the advent of high "modern globalization" in the late 19th century. This phase of globalization was characterized by the rise of maritime European empires, in the 15th and 17th centuries, first the Portuguese Empire (1415) followed by the Spanish Empire (1492), and later the Dutch and British Empires . In

7315-570: The previously mentioned wars in the Middle East—is the latest and most recent global conflict of the post-Cold War era. Faced with the threat of growing German and Italian fascism , Japanese Shōwa statism , and a world war, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union formed an alliance of necessity during World War II . After the Axis powers were defeated, the two most powerful states in

7410-451: The process of world shrinkage, of distances getting shorter, things moving closer. It pertains to the increasing ease with which somebody on one side of the world can interact, to mutual benefit, with somebody on the other side of the world. Paul James defines globalization with a more direct and historically contextualized emphasis: Globalization is the extension of social relations across world-space, defining that world-space in terms of

7505-442: The reduction of trade barriers as well as other economic reforms, and, in many cases, immigration. International standards have made trade in goods and services more efficient. An example of such standard is the intermodal container . Containerization dramatically reduced the costs of transportation, supported the post-war boom in international trade , and was a major element in globalization. International standards are set by

7600-442: The removal of the ideological interests of those superpowers. As a result of the apparent victory of democracy and capitalism in the Cold War , many more countries adapted these systems, which also allowed them access to the benefits of global trade , as economic power became more prominent than military power in the international arena. However, as the United States maintained global power, its role in many regime changes during

7695-439: The rest of the world in terms of industrial production and economic output , archaic globalization was a phenomenon that was driven not only by Europe but also by other economically developed Old World centers such as Gujarat , Bengal , coastal China , and Japan . The German historical economist and sociologist Andre Gunder Frank argues that a form of globalization began with the rise of trade links between Sumer and

7790-497: The spatial organization of social relations and transactions—assessed in terms of their extensity, intensity, velocity and impact—generating transcontinental or inter-regional flows" was called "probably the most widely-cited definition" in the 2014 DHL Global Connectiveness Index . Swedish journalist Thomas Larsson, in his book The Race to the Top: The Real Story of Globalization , states that globalization: ...is

7885-544: The spread of nuclear weapons . Pakistan , India, and North Korea are also in possession of nuclear technology but have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . The Cold War brought with it increased research into radio technology as well as nuclear weapons . The success of Sputnik 1 lead to an increase funding for Radio telescopes such as Jodrell Bank Observatory for use in tracking Sputnik and possible nuclear launches by

7980-560: The subject of Pagan studies had been held at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne , North-East England in 1993, having been organised by the religious studies scholars Graham Harvey and Charlotte Hardman. In April 1996 a larger conference dealing with contemporary Paganism then took place at Ambleside in the Lake District ; organised by the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Lancaster , North-West England, it

8075-551: The term "flat world" , arguing that globalized trade , outsourcing , supply-chaining , and political forces had permanently changed the world, for better and worse. He asserted that the pace of globalization was quickening and that its impact on business organization and practice would continue to grow. Economist Takis Fotopoulos defined "economic globalization" as the opening and deregulation of commodity , capital , and labor markets that led toward present neoliberal globalization. He used "political globalization" to refer to

8170-536: The term and bringing it into the mainstream business audience in the later in the middle of 1980s. Though often treated as synonyms, in French, globalization is seen as a stage following mondialisation, a stage that implies the dissolution of national identities and the abolishment of borders inside the world network of economic exchanges. Since its inception, the concept of globalization has inspired competing definitions and interpretations. Its antecedents date back to

8265-472: The time of the earliest civilizations until roughly the 1600s. This term is used to describe the relationships between communities and states and how they were created by the geographical spread of ideas and social norms at both local and regional levels. In this schema, three main prerequisites are posited for globalization to occur. The first is the idea of Eastern Origins, which shows how Western states have adapted and implemented learned principles from

8360-494: The two largest national economies. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic included a massive decline in tourism and international business travel as many countries temporarily closed borders. The 2021–2022 global supply chain crisis resulted from temporary shutdowns of manufacturing and transportation facilities, and labor shortages. Supply problems incentivized some switches to domestic production. The economic impact of

8455-404: The world became the Soviet Union and the United States. Both federations were called the world's superpowers. The underlying geopolitical and ideological differences between the recent allies led to mutual suspicions and shortly afterward, they led to confrontation between the two, known as the Cold War , which lasted from about 1947 to 1991. It began with the second Red Scare and it ended with

8550-515: The world. Many nations have acquired technology required to produce nuclear weapons since the end of the Cold War . Pakistan's nuclear program acquired Centrifuges capable of enriching uranium in the 80's and in 1998 was able to conduct several underground tests. Today the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, and China all possess nuclear weapons and have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in an attempt to curb

8645-571: Was centered upon the Indo-Mediterranean region, with the Silk Road later rising in importance with the Mongol Empire's consolidation of Asia in the 13th century. " Early modern " or "proto-globalization" covers a period of the history of globalization roughly spanning the years between 1600 and 1800. The concept of "proto-globalization" was first introduced by historians A. G. Hopkins and Christopher Bayly . The term describes

8740-400: Was entitled "Nature Religion Today: Western Paganism, Shamanism and Esotericism in the 1990s". The conference's organisers later described its original intentions, remarking that through it they "sought to explore the innovations in practice and belief which constitute contemporary Paganism, and which appear to be a part of a widespread cultural response to the decay of main-line religions and to

8835-551: Was freed from prison and the regime began steps to end apartheid. This culminated in the first democratic elections in 1994 , which resulted in Mandela being elected as President of South Africa . Socialist and communist parties around the world saw drops in membership after the Berlin Wall fell, and the public felt that free-market ideology had won. Libertarian , neoliberal , nationalist and Islamist parties, on

8930-639: Was largely unrestricted: the state controlled only the supply of grain. Trade on the Silk Road was a significant factor in the development of civilizations from China, the Indian subcontinent , Persia , Europe, and Arabia , opening long-distance political and economic interactions between them. Though silk was certainly the major trade item from China, common goods such as salt and sugar were traded as well; and religions , syncretic philosophies, and various technologies, as well as diseases, also traveled along

9025-472: Was occasionally used by other scholars and media, but it was not clearly defined. One of the first usages of the term in the meaning resembling the later, was by French economist François Perroux in his essays from the early 1960s (in his French works he used the term " mondialisation " (literarly worldization in French ), also translated as mundialization). Theodore Levitt is often credited with popularizing

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