Ghemawat v. Friedman: From the Present Progressive to the Future Perfect Progressive Perspective on Globalization
/Extracted 31MAY2011 from http://www.decisionsciences.org/decisionline/Vol39/39_4/default.asp)
See also http://ghemawat.com/books/world-30.aspx and, in parrticular, for a tour de force in empirical grounding, see Ghemawat, P. (2011). World 3.0: Global Prosperity and How to Achieve It. Harvard Business Press.
The point behind the title is that Ghemawat is arguing for something that is neither World 1.0 (reactionary or imaginary protectionism) nor World 2.0 (unfettered globalization as suggested analogically by Web 2.0). He argues from various sources of data that distance matters and borders matter in globalization. In other words, global markets are accessibly non-flat which implies a need for careful navigation of such markets and avoidance of seductive overarching assumptions about the world beyond one's borders. Among other factors, Ghemawat emphasizes the role of culture, administration, geography, and economics (CAGE constraints) in ways that imply opportunities as well as limits. Whether or not one accepts Ghemawat's thesis about accessible non-flatness of global markets, the book contains data and insights that are highly relevant to changes in strategy and execution of cross-border trade in the foreseeable future, and it has important implications for how risk and security of cross-border trade are conceptualized and addressed