A teenager in Ohio wears a shirt made in Bangladesh, eats sushi for lunch, and chats with a friend in Brazil on a phone designed in California. Globalization is the growing interconnection of world economies, cultures, and populations. It is driven by trade, investment, technology, and migration.

Globalization is not new. The Silk Road connected Asia and Europe centuries ago. But the pace and scale since the 1980s are unprecedented. Container shipping, the internet, and trade agreements like NAFTA and the WTO accelerated flows of goods, capital, and information.

Dimensions

• Economic: trade, foreign investment, global supply chains
• Cultural: spread of ideas, media, food, and language
• Political: international organizations, treaties, NGOs
• Technological: internet, mobile phones, digital payments

Globalization has lifted millions out of poverty. It has also displaced workers, spread diseases, and eroded local cultures. Critics on the left worry about labor exploitation. Critics on the right worry about loss of sovereignty. Both have a point.