The Lexus And The Olive Tree: Globalization Era And Cold War Era

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Friedman defines various aspects that show a sharp difference between the globalization era and the cold war era. The main overarching feature of the globalization era was integration; there were dynamic processes and all nation-states were interdependent. However, the cold war era was a frozen world. The activities and relations of nation-states were frozen and limited to a certain point. In the cold war era, the balance of power was between the U.S.A and the Soviet Union (USSR). Although the U.S still enjoys majority of power on the board, other nations can influence the board without fear in the globalization era. Nonetheless, the globalization era represented a shared state of power between states and states, states and supermarkets (millions of investors) and states and super empowered individuals. Individuals in the globalization era had the freedom to act on the world stage without intimidation.
Furthermore, the globalization era was marked with a lot of rural to urban movements, as well as cross border movements. This was made possible by the defining measurement of speed of doing things through “deals” entered into by different states. Nevertheless, the defining document during the cold war was “the treaty” which was measured by the weight of nuclear missiles a country had. Furthermore, East to West movement was frozen; people could only migrate from South to North or vice versa.
In Lexus and the Olive tree, Friedman links phase one of globalization that occurred in the mid 1800s, to the second phase of globalization that began immediately in 1989 after the fall of the Berlin wall. The first phase of globalization suffered a setback because of the fall of the iron curtain and the successive hammer blows by the two world wars. Hence, Friedman termed the current phase of globalization as globalization II. He defines the current globalization as extensive interaction of technologies, nation-states and markets in ways that have never been witnessed before. This interaction enables corporations, nations and individuals to reach around the world in a faster and cheaper way than before. The world also reaches to corporations, individuals and nations in a faster and cheaper way than before.
It is in the second phase of globalization that limitations of globalization one would be fixed. Fascism, socialism and communism were results of globalization one. Although wealth was created, only a few in the society enjoyed it. However, globalization two introduced free market capitalism, which ensured wealth was evenly distributed. The market forces of supply and demand were allowed to influence the market prices rather than individual people and states. The international market was open to all states and individual traders, and privatization of most economies began. The internet has reduced the world into a small village and marketing of products was done through the web. The United States and the Soviet Union became trade competitors and ceased to be war enemies.
Globalization effects (Lexus) and the traditions (Olive tree) of people can be used to explain the affairs of the world. Globalization has resulted in the great development of human life. However, tr...