Baltimoremick.com

On Monday night, I finished reading Thomas L. Friedman’s The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. Friedman is the noted foreign affairs columnist in The New York Times, and he tends to make the Sunday morning talk show circuit as well. This book made the bestseller lists, and it was generally lauded in the press. The book was interesting to me, as I wanted to discover what all the buzz was about. I also am somewhat familiar with the material, being a bit of a economics and international politics wonk myself.

The book can best be summarized as an examination on the effect that globalization has had on the world–making the world much flatter than it has ever been. In some sense, one can say that Friedman sees the current revolution as the “Flattening Revolution”–a change much akin to the Industrial Revolution. Needless to say, Friedman goes onto say that the flattening of the world is a good thing, and he proceeds to identify ways in which the flattening effects should be embraced. The flattening of the world should not be a call to raise barriers to slow its progress.

I found the book to be a rather large simplification of economic globalization. For the uninitiated, this book is a wonderful introduction to the effect that the removal of barriers to trade and labor have in the arena of international economics. Friedman has a tendency to go on ad nauseum about the various examples of what he sees as the successful results of recognizing the flattening of the world. I would have to argue, however, that his flatteners are merely technological innovations that have resulted in increased worker productivity. Additionally, I would also argue that outsourcing is merely another example of the flow of labor unimpeded by barriers to its flow. Any student of international economics can easily explain this phenomenon. Another issue I had with the book is how Friedman explains his informal theory of how any two nations with McDonalds have never come to war with one another–he reshapes this theory in this book as the Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention–essentially, those countries who may be long-time nemeses will not engage in hostile acts as a result of their participation in and benefit derived from being part of a global supply chain. Now, I have heard this notion before in various economics classes through college and grad school, but it was never attributed to Tom Friedman.
One of the more interesting components that Friedman addresses is the recognition of the flattening effects and how to embrace these effects. Friedman points out that outsourcing is not in itself a bad thing. Instead, he advises, that we should take advantage of the outsourcing. For example, he argues that China is a wonderful place to act as the research arm of various multinational corporations–given their rather large pool of talent.
Friedman also recognizes that the flattening of the world has only had an effect on certain areas of the globe. While India and China have certainly benefitted from it, there are only certain regions of both countries that have been successful byproducts of this effect. The other key is to be able to extend that flattening to areas of those countries that need it.

Another interesting argument he makes is that there are certain efforts attempting to undermine the flattening of the globe. Islamic terrorism–or as he calls it Islamo-Leninism–is a large part of this. While this is true, terrorism is just one example of transnational threats that will undermine globalization. I think he is right to identify a source of Islamic terrorism as the notion of an educated elite, however that only explains part of the rise in such groups. Much like any revolutionary movement–such as that of colonial America or pre-Napoleonic France–these movements result from the a perceived injustice. Friedman is correct, though, in seizing upon the notion that the existence of this threat should not be the reason that globalization–flattening–be stopped in its tracks.

If you are looking at a good introduction of what is occurring in the global marketplace, this is not a bad book to read at all. It is an easy read, but Friedman likes to take his examples a bit further than I would like. Nonetheless, I recommend this book for the uninitiated. If you have any background or more than a passing interest in this subject matter, please find something else to read that is much more in-depth.