Prime Movers of Globalization

Globalization Waves and Their Prime Movers

... the new regime of the seas provoked a growing primacy of the Far West over other civilizations of the earth.... The circulation of ideas... took on a new pattern and velocity.

William H. McNeill, The Global Condition

The phenomenon of globalizationthe planet-spanning process of economic exchanges and information links, of complex flows of social and political influences, and of unprecedented environmental consequenceshas been examined from many perspectives, with results ranging from highly arguable claims to insightful observations. The search for historical precedents has led to indefensible claims (such as Jack Weatherfords 2004 conclusion that Genghis Khan was a thoroughly modern man who was committed to global commerce) and to simplistic misreadings of complex historical, social, and economic realities (such as Thomas L. Friedmans 2005 exaggerated claims of a flat world). Among the most valuable contributions have been the examinations of links between economic globalization and planetwide environmental impacts, above all the process of anthropogenic climate change that encompasses a complex realm of causes and feedbacks (Alley et al. 2007).

But one approach has been rather conspicuously missing from these examinationsa focus on those techniques that have made this remarkable process possible. How have we arrived at the point of moving among the continents billions of tons of fuels, ores, cement, fertilizers, and feed- and foodstuffs and an enormous variety of industrial goods comprising ever-changing myriads of specifications and amounting commonly to tens of thousands and in some cases (most notably cars) even millions of tons per particular product? How it has come about that we can fly from virtually any place that has an airport with a runway long enough (at least 2.5 to 3 km) to accommodate large Boeing and Airbus jetliners to any other similarly equipped place anywhere on the planet often within just sixteen and mostly within twenty-four hours?