Globalization

In the history of civilizations the contest for human interaction has been war. Since war has been a part of life, we should look at war more than a lack of peace than an eruption of hostility. Despite how advanced our world is today with global telecommunications, the ability to travel to space, and nano technology, war is still a part of every day life for a large part of the global population, but in this newly connected global marketplace, peace has or will have even more value than war.

Globalization is a connected marketplace of economics, education and travel. It is now just as easy to communicate with someone on the opposite side of the globe as it is to communicate with someone on the opposite side of town you live in. If you look around on the UNCC campus you see people from around the world. We have so many cultures just packed into one campus. Distances and borders are starting mean less and less in this globalized world, and since the start of history they have meant less as time has progressed. Communications just keep getting cheaper and faster. Because of this, we now depend on each other more than ever, which just may be the best way for us to find peace. Most of globalization happens without the effort of those involved; it is just part of our everyday life.

Wal-Mart imports more than $12 billion worth of goods from China every year. Hyundai, while once a joke of a car company for American customers, is quickly becoming a sales champ in the US, topping 400,000 new car sales last year. It has had the largest growth of all car sales in time. The computer that I am typing on now was made in Taiwan, and within a week you can have one shipped to your door from the factory. Our possessions have quickly become a silent plan, only being able to tell by the “Made In” sticker. Would the United States go to war with one of our Asian suppliers? On the other hand, would one of our Asian suppliers attack their biggest customers? When the case for the war with Iraq was taken to the UN, several countries objected even without hearing the proof for the reason of war. It came out later that the opposing of the war countries all had deals for Iraqi oil. These countries included France, Russia, Germany and others. Maybe the best plan for peace isn't a treaty but a sale of goods. Add the threat of nuclear war on top of the economic incentive for peace, and the lack of war looks pretty appealing.

When I did some research on this topic, the book NonZero: The Logic of Human Destiny by Robert Wright uses a theory called “game theory” to explain the increasing complexity of human civilizations. This book kept appearing on many different websites so I did some reading on this book and found that it tells that globalization was inevitable, the means to expand and trade have grown because something that is available in America may not be available in some countries and the countries need this product to survive and vice versa. With this saying, does this mean that peace is inevitable? Through the history of America and the world we have become more globalized from boats to telegraphs to telephone and satellite communications. The book explained that Game theory has two choices: zero-sum and non-zero-sum. Zero-sum means one party will benefit at the loss of the other. Non-zero means both parties will benefit. Our current trade positions are non-zero-sum because we get cheap goods and our trade partner gets jobs. From our view, we might be getting