The Three Dimensions of Globalization

Globalization is a term covering a wide range of political, economic and cultural trends. The term has become one of the most fashionable catchwords of contemporary political and academic debate. According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, globalization often functions as little more than a synonym for one or more of the following phenomena: the pursuit of classical liberal (or "free market") policies in the world economy ("economic liberalization"), the growing dominance of western (or even American) forms of political, economic, and cultural life ("westernization" or "Americanization"), the proliferation of new infonnation technologies (the "Internet Revolution"), as well as the notion that humanity stands at the threshold of realizing one single unified community in which major sources of social conflict have vanished ("global integration").