Globalization and the Borderless World: Essay

Globalisation is a process which involves the widening and deepening of global connections and flows such as commodities, information, migrants and tourists. Technology can be seen as one of the key drivers in accelerating globalisation as it has developed efficient transport systems as well as sending information overseas much quicker via the Internet, which was also developed as a result of better technology. Furthermore, trade links have also caused globalisation to happen, globalisation has allowed more efficient trade links, for example in the EU, where the free market was promoted in order to grow economically. It can be argued that globalisation benefited only selected parts of the world. Globalisation touches down very unevenly, interacting with local political and cultural socio-economies in myriad ways. It differentiates and complicates the world, raising real threats to social and environmental immanence as well as, subject to progressive regulation, great promise. Thus, leading to separations in some parts of the world both through physical borders and also through social exclusion or inclusion. It can be argued that globalisation has led to an increasingly borderless world to an extent.

Deglobalisation has occurred in some governments around the world. It is the process where there is diminishing interdependence and integration between certain units around the world, typically nation-states. As a result, economic trade and investment between countries decline. Brexit is a unique example of deglobalisation that will hurt Britain’s economy as trade ties with the EU are weakened, which could lead to the weakening of the Pound further. Thus, the need for globalisation to occur is vital as Brexit can devastate current relations with the EU. Brexit can be seen as the traditional approach to creating a bordered society as compared to the borderless society that was previously discussed. The reason for this is to reduce the interdependence with other countries and benefit themselves by limiting the influx of foreigners entering the country to prevent the exploitation of the welfare state in the UK.

However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World Trade Organisation (WTO) have collectively worked towards a ‘free trade consensus’. The ‘Bretton Woods Institutions’ have persuaded many developing countries to embrace free market economics and globalisation and adopt the ‘Western model’ of trade. However, there are states in Africa which are landlocked and cannot trade as easily as other countries which have closer access to ports and as a result they remain switched off. National governments have also promoted the growth of trade blocs. To trade freely with neighbours, trade agreements have been drawn up, allowing state boundaries to be crossed freely by flows of goods and money. For example, the EU has evolved over time from being a simple trade bloc into a multi-governmental organisation with its own currency (the Euro) and some shared political legislation. The EU is the largest trading bloc in the world and also the second largest economy after the USA, the five largest economies are Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain, and they account for 70% of the economy out of the 28 other countries in the EU. The EU can be successful to an extent as it has allowed many people to benefit from its trade policies and also through the freedom of movement, further making it borderless. Thus, it can be argued that trade is a vital cause of globalisation as it has allowed many states to grow and prosper, inevitably leading to a borderless world.

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Technology has been enhanced heavily through its use in globalisation. Through its use in social media and communications, it has led to a more borderless world, technology in the world of business has allowed the global operations of businesses, meaning that businesses can expand beyond their borders. This benefits capital and speeds up globalisation, creating interdependence meaning a more borderless society. Technology is a key factor responsible for the acceleration of globalisation and global flows. Technology has led to further developments such as transport systems and also the movement of information around the world via the Internet. In the 1800s, steamships and trains were moving goods and people in large numbers along global trade routes spanning Asia and Africa. By the late 1960s, the arrival of the intercontinental Boeing 747 (Jumbo Jet) had made international air travel less expensive, resulting in increased global flows of tourists. In recent decades, food and merchandise have been transported efficiently across enormous distances using intermodal containers in developments in containerisation. Containerisation has increased the efficiency of transport as all the containers have standardised dimensions, so it is easier to load and unload goods at ports. Furthermore, technology has expanded the use of the Internet around the world. It originally began as part of a scheme funded by the US Defence Department during the Cold War in the 1960s. Since then, connectivity between people and places has rocketed. Now, five billion Facebook 'likes' are registered globally every day. Broadband Internet has helped deliver this connectivity. Gigantic amounts of data flow across the Earth’s ocean floors through fibre-optic cables owned by national governments or Internet TNCs such as Google. Indeed, the collapse of time and space through the medium of information/communications technologies has displaced the physical market with the virtual market of the Internet for business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions (Cairncross, 1997). Thus, technology as a factor has been enhanced greatly through the process of globalisation and further interconnecting different businesses and inevitably creating more borderless.

However, there are states around the world which have not benefited from the Internet, such as Cuba, where the Internet is very limited due to past political disputes when Castro was head of state. To this day even states such as China are restricted to what they can view, thus limiting globalisation. China is not entirely borderless as the 'Great Firewall of China' restricts a lot of data from being let into the country as well as let out. This is mainly to protect the deeply ingrained culture of China.

The wall built by the USA between USA and Mexico can be seen as a physical border. The border is a physical or political line that separates geographic areas. The reason why this wall was built was due to the rising immigration issues the USA was facing. The USA has a very long history of immigration, with its earliest settlers being the Europeans in the early 1500s. The 36.7 million foreigners residing in the USA make up almost 12% of the country’s population, however, 58% of them do not have suitable American citizenship. Nearly half of them are Latin American, one-third of whom were born in Mexico. The process of globalisation can transform the social, economic and also the ‘political fabric of society’, but it also revalues or devalues a place. Thus, this can be seen as a reason why people are migrating from Mexico to the USA as there is a lack of jobs for its population and globalisation has not entirely benefited Mexico. The wall which was announced by President Trump in 2015 can be seen as both a physical and theoretical barrier to protecting the USA’s current immigration. However, a failure of the border is human trafficking through its borders. Not only are humans trafficked into the country, but also drug cartels are able to smuggle illegal drugs too, which leads to further crime and violence. Consequently, it can be seen here that there is a downside to globalisation as it devalues certain parts of the world, which further puts stress on immigration policies and leads to having physical borders put up to implement rules.

To conclude, it can be argued that over time and through historical events, globalisation has mostly had a positive impact on the global sphere through the constant movement of goods via trade, services through labour work and also migration, inevitably leading to a more borderless world and also keeping it more interconnected. However, there are some parts of the world that decide not to open borders to protect their ingrained culture, such as China, but there are countries that simply are not able to benefit due to poor infrastructure and investment. Thus, having a common set of transparent and stable investment rules could help less advantaged economies with the support of FDI to help open up their barriers for trade purposes.