“Over the last 20 years, globalization has been gaining breadth and depth. More countries are making goods, communications technology has been leveling the playing field, capital has been free to move across the world – and the United States has benefited massively from these trends. Its economy has received hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, and its companies have entered new countries and industries with great success.”
Fareed Zakaria, “The Future of American Power,” Foreign Affairs, May/June, 2008, 28.
“Both the United States and the United Kingdom are beneficiaries of globalization. About $1 trillion of the United States GDP – 10 percent- depends on it; in the United Kingdom, a more open economy the proportion is significantly higher.”
Will Hutton, The Writing on the Wall, New York, Free Press, 2006, 317. Elsewhere, Hutton argues that protectionism has almost always been bad for the American economy (240ff.).
While much of the world has been globalizing, the greater Middle East (including the Central Asian Republics) has been deglobalizing. Will Hutton (323) cites figures showing that between 1979 and 2000, “the Middle East’s share of global trade and investment fell by three-fourths while its population nearly doubled, to 600 million,” and that, “across the Arab world average per capita incomes fell from $2,300 to $1,600 between 1980 and 2000.” Hutton argues it is trends like these that explain the real reasons for Arab and Muslim anger against the West.
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