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In Defense of Globalization

Jagdish Bhagwati

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PART I: Hypothesis and Framework

Although there is a glut of literature and debate on the subject of globalization, Jagdish Bhagwati chooses to weigh in again upon this controversial subject. Bhagwati sees that the debate on globalization has become weighed down by passionate, if uninformed, arguments on the one side, and fragmented, overly optimistic responses on the other. The forces of anti-globalization- be they the ground troops seen dressed as turtles at trade summits, or the more informed NGOs that have raised serious questions about globalization- have been able to seize the debate, at least in developed nations, and raise unfounded fears of this trend. They have latched onto unproven fears of globalization and attempted to present them as fact despite a paucity of evidence. In response, the pro-globalization camp has not mounted the defense they should have. There has been no systematic refutation of the claims of anti-globalization forces, followed by a sensitive response to those claims that do have merit. As Bhagwati tells us, "...we have fierce opponents locked in combat, but each side without a constructive blueprint for globalization. Where we need a total war, we instead have combatants engaged in battles over a fragmented front" (Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization x). In Defense of Globalization is Bhagwati's effort to construct that blueprint of globalization and systematic refutation of the claims of anti-globalizers. One-by-one, Bhagwati goes through the claims of the anti-globalization forces, and one-by-one he blows holes through them, yet when he comes across those claims that are serious he gives them a reasoned response and gives guidance for how these problems can be alleviated.
Globalism began as a phenomena that was trumpeted by the developed nations (the US and its allies) as something that would bring the developing nations up and away from the lure of communist revolution, yet today it has turned into something that is generally favored by the people of the developing nations and looked at with trepidation by the developed nations. This 180o paradigm shift is accompanied by two types of globalization dissenters. The first type of dissenter is the impassioned, yet ruefully ignorant, costumed protestor that has developed a deep-seeded hate for capitalism, globalization and multi-national corporations (the "trilogy of discontents"). The next type of dissenters though are the well reasoned critics of globalization that invite debate and discourse; in addressing these critics, the `meat and potatoes' of Bhagwati's work takes shape.
Economic globalization- and one must preface this by saying that Bhagwati's work is clearly focused on economic globalization (FDI, trade flows, capital investment)- lacks the compassion needed to help the poorest people of the world according to these critics. It has adversely helped the rich in the developing nations at the expense of the poor, hindered the cause of women, put children to work, and usurped the sovereignty of developing nations to the benefit of rapacious multi-national corporations. Not so, says Bhagwati. He calls their claims a "giant non-sequitur" and gives good evidence to prove this claim. Yes, some of these things have happened but are they globalizations fault? When children were fired from working in textile shops in Bangladesh (a victory for anti-globalization, because child labor had been stopped) what happened to them? A significant amount of them were turned into child prostitutes, a pyrrhic-victory at best. When globalization significantly increases the GDP of a nation, and the per capita GDP of its peoples, does it not help the poor as well? By increasing the size of the pie, hasn't globalization allowed everyone in developing nations to eat more, literally and figuratively? Is it to be damned because the rich have benefited as well as the poor?
Bhagwati goes to great length to lay aside these claims that economic globalization undermines the poorest of the world, but he does not stop there. He does his level best to convince the reader that globalization is in fact socially benign. This may not be such an outrageous claim to an economics student or an IR student, but to the layman this is simply an outrageous statement. Isn't it sweat shop workers who are stealing the jobs of Americans? Aren't they virtually forced to work in these plants under terrible conditions? This is one of the major problems Bhagwati is trying to ameliorate with this book. The anti-globalization forces have seized `high-ground' in the debate. This is why they can mass thousands upon thousands of protestors every time there is a WTO summit or a G7 meeting in a developed nation. For too long the pro-globalization forces have been content to let their numbers do the talking against specific claims, while failing to get out the broader argument that globalization has a human face, is socially benign, and is (MNCs) subject to the laws of host nations. In Defense of Globalization is an excellent all-purpose book that hits the anti-globalizers at every level. It address specific and broad claims, draws from a wealth of previous research to support its claims and benefits from the 50+ years of experience Bhagwati has in the field of international economics/relations. His unmatched personal experience, connections and intellectual acumen make this book a pillar of strength for globalization to rest on. It is perfect for the layman who knows globalization is good, but lacks the lexicon to defend it against the many blustering critics it has gained.

PART II: Format and Evidence

Bhagwati breaks his book up into four major sections where he presents a total argument for globalization. In his first section, Bhagwati explores the whys and wherefores of anti-globalization in an attempt to get a grasp on what the `enemy' thinks of globalization; furthermore, he offers arguments and evidence to deal with these critics of globalization. Coping with Anti-Globalization, as he names this first section, is an in-depth look at the critique of globalization. First, Bhagwati asks why are people against globalization. Next, he attempts to prove that globalization (regardless of what critics say) is a social boon, but that it can be improved- both of which are ideas he explores further in later chapters. Finally, he looks at the major players of the anti-globalization movement: the NGOs, who have become incredibly well-funded and powerful in the developed nations, yet oftentimes remain at odds with their less extravagant counterparts in the developing world.
In order to begin any defense of globalization one must understand why there are any anti-globalizers at all. Bhagwati breaks the anti-globalizers into two distinct groups: the protestors who make every attempt to disrupt meaningful trade summits with costumed antics fit for the cartoons they resemble, and the dissenters who call for reasoned debate and response to their arguments. These dissenters are well-connected, well-funded and have raised serious claims that need to be met with serious responses.
Identifying these dissenters is not enough though, Bhagwati also hits upon some of the core assumptions that these dissenters make about globalization. First among these is that globalization is a single, homogenous entity that is either all good or all bad. By this logic free trade was proven to be a terrible thing when the Asian Financial crisis happened in the late 90's. Far be it for an anti-globalizer to separate free trade (which was prominent in the East Asian miracle) from unrestricted capital flows-which were a causal factor in the financial crisis. (In Defense of Globalization 7) Another of these fallacies that Bhagwati brings up is that anti-globalization is a worldwide phenomena that is supported by the majority of the world's poor. Citing data from the World Economic Forum (WEF), Bhagwati shows that since the 1950s and 1960s globalization has taken a U-turn to become very popular in the developed world while becoming more feared in the developed world, although you wouldn't know this if you were an undergrad in the US. Is there any campus in America where students aren't completely sure that the people of East Asia had globalization unwillingly forced on them and would be rid of it if they could be? Thankfully the developing world doesn't take its cues from US campus' protests. Many of the nations of the `South' have seen the success that globalization brought the Far East while they chose to remain protectionist and have since open their own trade. Bhagwati does note though that the WEF data shows anti-globalization sentiment that left the Seattle talks in ruins has subsided since the 90's, at least in the US. This would be consistent with passage of CAFTA legislation that the US congress has passed recently, but how would this data square with the recent anti-immigration movement of US legislators? Indeed, even Bhagwati himself seems to be a bit skeptical of this last part of the data.
How did these fallacies about globalization develop, and why are the anti-globalizers so ardent in their opposition? Bhagwati comes up with his trilogy of discontents that are at the heart of the anti-globalization movement. The first of these is the anti-capitalism movement. How can there even be an anti-capitalist movement? That is what the logical question should be, but clearly it is there. Anti-capitalism began, as it is seen today, after the triumph of capitalism. Once the West had won the ideological war against the USSR; China had left traditional communism behind for a more open, market-oriented economy; and the Asian economies that embraced market capitalism took off, the ideological left was left intellectually bankrupt. Socialism and communism were proven to be uncompetitive when put on an open field with capitalism. When there is no alternative to embrace the natural response is to hate that which has triumphed. That is the genesis of the anti-capitalism movement that has ensnared many of the young people on the campuses in the US. Further, many of these young people think that capitalism is unable to answer the social questions that are so important to the youth. Economics is hardly seen as the breeding ground of compassion that literature and the social sciences are, but it must also be said that people intellectually based in literature are hardly in the same reality as the rest of us. Of the social sciences, history may be the only one which offers a common sense and objective way to view any given situation. This is one of the main problems with the enthusiastic youth of the anti-globalization movement: they have not had a true intellectual awakening yet, they have only one side of the story. They lack a broad understanding of global issues that is needed to analyze something as massive as globalization. This is exacerbated, Bhagwati tells us, when these same young people can watch suffering 7,000 miles away live on FOX News:
Today, thanks to television, we have what I call the paradox of inversion of the philosopher David Hume's concentric circles of reducing loyalty and empathy... What the internet and CNN have done is to take Hume's outermost circle and turn it to his innermost. No longer can we snore while the other half of humanity suffers plague and pestilence and the continuing misery of extreme poverty.... So the young see and are anguished by the poverty and the civil wars and the famines in remote areas of the world but often have no intellectual training to cope with their anguish and follow it through rationally in terms of appropriate action. (In Defense of Globalization 18-19)

Second in Bhagwati's trilogy of discontents is the natural anti-globalization movement that has developed among these same youth out of their anti-capitalist feelings. This shift is as natural as breathing for any left-leaning student. Capitalism has been linked to imperialism for as long as it has had detractors, and globalization is seen as the imperial arm of today's capitalism. Since the sensibilities of the world have moved beyond the archaic, imperial mindset, empire must be disguised in clever ways that make the conquered actually embrace the conqueror. Of course, globalization is the means by which today's Western empires conquer the developing world. No doubt that if these developing nations do not willingly accept globalization it will be forced on them through economic coercion at best, and military intervention at worst. The catalyst for spreading the empire, globalization, has become the general target of these discontents, but the catalyst for spreading globalization, MNCs, have become the specific targets of these discontents.
Indeed, the MNCs, Bhagwati's third target in the trilogy of discontents, may have more venom directed at them than the more general targets of capitalism and globalization combined. Trying to fight general terms like globalization and capitalism is difficult, while fighting something with a tangible face (like Microsoft) is comparatively easy, and in fighting the MNCs you actually are fighting the other two parts of the trilogy as well. MNC opposition is not limited to protesting students though, a great many people from all walks of life feel that MNCs are the unrivaled winners of globalization. Oftentimes MNCs are portrayed as monopolies that are able to sidestep laws and regulations at best, or are not even subject to laws and regulation at worst. Bhagwati explains that the anti-globalization camp uses specific examples, which are often overblown, to justify their general hate of corporations. Most importantly, they have been able to use this anti-corporate sentiment for some strategic success, disrupting the WTO, IMF and World Bank on separate occasions. Using the high profile nature of these meetings, these dissenters have been able to gain the favor of the media. Indeed, I've never seen CNN or FOX News broadcast the actual WTO meetings (something that would be eminently enjoyable) but they are both sure to have as many shots of and stories about protestors that they can.
Rounding out his look at the whys of anti-globalization, Bhagwati tackles some of the `alternative' dissent to globalization. The ideological right would have America build walls figuratively and literally to keep unwanted immigrants and imports out of the country. How appropriate this sentiment seems today in the wake of the recent Mexican immigration demonstrations and English as a national language legislation that has been passed. Although this viewpoint was not the focus of Bhagwati's work (immigration is not specifically one of the economic aspects of globalization) it may become the most powerful form of anti-globalization in the United States. Politicians were conspicuous by their absence during the Latino demonstrations of a few weeks ago, and the US Senate has been quick to pass legislation making English the official language of the US. Surely both Democrats and Republicans realize that the vast majority of Americans (upwards of 70%) want some type of immigration reform. The political power of this heretofore silent majority is mammoth, even greater than the "Latino vote" which politicians have been pandering to for the last 20 years while our southern border became a turnstile for illegal immigrants. Bhagwati would have done well to spend some more time on this obviously important issue.
Lastly, Bhagwati hits upon something that Chua noted in World on Fire (2003): that anti-Americanism fuels anti-globalization today. The worldwide hegemony of the United States is matched by the almost worldwide anti-Americanism that can be found. To be sure, anti-Americanism is not nearly as strong as American hegemony, and is balanced by pro-Americanism is several regions, but it is a concern the US has to deal with. With no prevailing alternative like that provided by the USSR, nations feel overwhelmed by the reach of the US. As a result, these nations begin to resent that the US (which is oftentimes half a world away geographically) exercises more power in their respective backyards than these nations do themselves. As Chua would put it the US is the world's market dominant minority.
Bhagwati uses the next two short chapters of his first section to introduce his ideas that globalization is better than it is portrayed to be, but that it can still improve if governments implement it better. Globalization has become, in his mind, the punching bag for every social ill of the world. As he sarcastically exclaims, "...if capitalism has prospered and economic globalization has increased while some social ill has worsened, the first two phenomena must have caused the third" (In Defense of Globalization 29). He posits, on the other hand, that globalization has a human face, and that it is socially good. This is explored in some depth in Part II of his book. In his mind though, globalization can be implemented better than it currently is. This would reduce the anti-globalization sentiment and help some of the developing nations equally distribute then benefits of globalization to everyone. This idea he looks at in Part IV.
Bhagwati finishes his first section with a look at the essential cog that makes anti-globalization go: the non-governmental organizations. NGOs have proliferated at a rate that would make the AIDS virus green with envy; in fact, a small number of them have probably just began in the time it took you to read this sentence. Interestingly enough, one would think that Western nations dominate the numbers of NGOs (their NGOs certainly dominate media coverage at WTO ministerial meetings), but developing have as many NGOs as developed nations. They are just not nearly so well funded or well connected. As Bhagwati points out in this chapter, NGOs of the Western world have come to resemble that which they oppose a great deal: the multi-national corporation. The NGOs though oftentimes do not have to keep transparent record keeping or file quarterly reports like MNCs do. Under close scrutiny some of these so called benign NGOs have been so laced with corruption that the costumed protestors would be better to set up shop outside of their local Red Cross rather than a Wal-Mart.
Bhagwati's goal for his second section of his book is to prove that globalization has a human face, and that that face is none other than the free trade and MNCs that are so vehemently protested against. He does this by systematically going through every point of attack that anti-globalizers level against corporate globalization and by refuting them one by one. First on the chopping block is poverty and the claims that globalization worsens the plight of the poor. This simply is not the case as the evidence shows. Bhagwati is able to site several studies that conclusively show that, "trade enhances growth and growth reduces poverty" (In Defense of Globalization 53). To put it simply, when the pie gets bigger everyone begins to eat more of it. It is the policy responsibilities of the individual nations to see that their poor are experiencing as much of this growth as possible.
When it comes to child labor, Bhagwati demonstrates that globalization has helped this cause as well. By showing that globalization spurs growth and overall wealth for the poor, Bhagwati is able to trace this to a reduction in child labor. He argues that when poor parents in the developing world are able to make more in wages, they do not use this extra money to consume more. In most cases, "education of one's children is a superior good, the consumption of which rises as income rises" (In Defense of Globalization 70). Citing Dehejia and Gatti's studies of 163 countries Bhagwati tells us that, "improvements in the financial sector... is associated with a reduction in the use of child labor" (In Defense of Globalization 70).
In the case of women's rights Bhagwati finds some areas where globalization (in the form of MNCs) can do more for women, but he still concludes that globalization has been beneficial to women in general. Feminism, Bhagwati argues, was spread in large part due to globalization. Bringing Western ideas of equality to the formerly developing world and the current developing world has opened up opportunities for women that previously would not have been there. Further, working conditions in EPZs, that often employ many women, are oftentimes better than those in the rest of developing nations and pay a better wage than those other jobs as well. On the other hand, MNCs that employ these women should take a greater role in ensuring that they can get to and from work safely if the host nations have proven themselves unable or willing to police their neighborhoods. Passing all of the blame to governments in poor nations is an easy way for corporations. They would do well to provide more for their workers, the good will sentiment alone would more than defray the cost.
The next question is whether or not globalization interferes with democracy. Herein lies a paradox. By promoting international norms, obviously democratic sovereignty is reduced in any given nation, but it can also be stated that globalization promotes the transition to democracy by formerly autocratic regimes. This is one of the principle debates about globalization that has yet to be answered to any real satisfaction. Huntington speaks to this debate in The Third Wave: Democratization in the 20th Century (1991). One of his six independent variables that influenced the movement of developing nations to democratization was the snowballing effect of other nations becoming democratic. That is, that global pressures pushed nations to democratize as their neighbors did. Yet some nations have been conspicuously resistant to this change. China is obviously the first to come to mind here. While they have opened their economy they have remained politically repressive. Bhagwati asserts that China's political repression cannot last, but this is a guess at best. Many scholars have been saying the same thing for 20 years, but that doesn't mean it will happen.
What Bhagwati is getting at in all of these successive chapters of his second section is that globalization as a whole entity is a socially benign thing. Specific examples of globalization setting back the social agenda can be found, but on the whole the evidence shows that globalization in the form of MNCs is under too much scrutiny to be as rapacious as its critics would assert. MNCs realize that they will always be fighting an uphill PR battle in the media, so their representatives have to be above the standards of other local companies inside of developing nations. The scope of globalization is so huge that focusing on specific examples of what one corporation did is no way to make a general argument for or against it.
In Part III of his book Bhagwati briefly shifts focus to some of the other dimensions of globalization. Namely, transnational migration and international capital flows. International capital flows are among the most dangerous aspects of globalization, and this is not lost on Bhagwati. He was at the forefront of those who saw the Asian financial crisis coming and those who knew how to stem the tide of this crisis, but were unable to change IMF and World Bank policy. Capital controls keep money from fleeing a region with the speed that it did during the financial crisis, and they were present in the few East Asian nations that were able to avoid the worst of the crisis. Bhagwati makes it known that he is for some restrictions in capital flows, but trying to turn this into protectionism is the wrong answer. It was open trading that brought about the East Asian miracle and closing it off would be wrong.
To deal with massive immigration Bhagwati would ask that we cope with it instead of trying to stop it. Essentially, he argues that it is impossible to stop, and should be dealt with in any case. Granting limited civil rights to illegals is just the tip of the iceberg for him. He has proposed a World Migration Organization that would take charge of national migration policies. Here is somewhere that I feel Bhagwati is off the mark. His solution is simply implausible, I cannot see many developed nations joining any World Migration Organization. The loss of sovereignty is simply too much. The US, for its part, is beginning to lean more and more towards stopping immigration rather than coping. To be sure coping has failed the US for the last 20 years.
Part IV of Bhagwati's work focuses on how to better implement globalization in the world today. As he tells us, "It should be clear that globalization will yield better results if it is managed" (In Defense of Globalization 221). Breaking into three chapters, Bhagwati sees three ways in which globalization can be managed better. First, he wishes to enhance the human side of globalization which he demonstrated in Part II. This can be done by strengthening the review processes of international organizations, not by allowing trade sanctions to be imposed by developed countries on developing nations that have differing labor standards. Second, he sees that globalization is going to have some eventual downsides, and these need to be coped with. These downsides are often country specific and institutions need to be funded inside of these nations to confront these downsides. This means that careful study must be done of specific nations and their respective problems, there is no cookie-cutter globalization policy that will work in all developing nations. Furthermore, stopping globalization completely in a given area to prevent a proposed downside is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. It just doesn't need to be done. Lastly, Bhagwati thinks that the transition to globalization needs to be managed as well. It is the speed with which a nation globalizes that he is primarily concerned with. Indeed, he isn't the first scholar to note that rapid globalization can lead to trouble, even disaster. Chua definitely notes this as one of her biggest concerns with globalization. Nations are becoming democratic and capitalist overnight, leaving the poor in power and the rich in fear. Bhagwati's fears are not as great in this matter as Chua's, but he recognizes that globalization should happen at optimal rather than maximal speed.
What strikes the reader most about Bhagwati's work is that when you read it you realize that you are reading the words of an expert in the field, perhaps the expert. The wealth of knowledge that Bhagwati can draw on for this subject is limitless. He cites several studies (some of which were his own) and never seems to be at a loss for ample data to back up his claims. At points one feels that Bhagwati may be patting himself on the back, but a quick look at his resume will quickly take that notion from you. He simply is the authority on this issue, and if he isn't shy about it at points it's because he doesn't have to be. I found myself awestruck for a moment when Bhagwati recounted an encounter with Justice Scalia where upon the good Supreme Court Justice and our author discusses the finer points of the Justice Bhagwati's (the author's brother) rulings on the Bangalore Principals. So too, when Bhagwati talks of being part of the committees that helped India to globalize and being at the very top levels of the IMF, one cannot help but pay close attention to what he has to say.

PART III: Globalization Debate

Bhagwati's contributions to the globalization debate are unrivaled. In Defense of Globalization clearly is the book that the casual free trader can rest his hat on and be confident that it will give him the answers he needs to brush of the protests of anti-globalizers. Bhagwati's work would clearly agree with Drezner's Bottom Feeders (2000). Drezner goes to great length to dispel the myth of a "race to the bottom" in which global standards of labor and environmental conditions are sacrificed at the alter of the MNCs. He is able to cite evidence which clearly shows that multinational corporations have in fact raised the standard of living and the condition of the environment in the nations where they have been. Further, they often use their influence to nudge developing nations into raising their environmental and labor standards so that they (the corporation) does not have to face the potentially damning criticisms of the anti-globalization NGOs. In fact, Drezner's work is one that Bhagwati cites in his book.
I think Easterly's Cartel of Good Intentions (2002) might be one that would give Bhagwati some pause. Bhagwati puts an unreasonable amount of faith in multinational institutions in my opinion and clearly this is the opposite of Easterly. Easterly sees these institutions as being a roadblock oftentimes to the aid developing nations need to manage globalization properly. Bhagwati's slant towards multinational institutions would lead him to disagree with the principal of Easterly's argument. In fact, there really is no point at which Bhagwati does not support globalization, be it multinational organizations or eliminating trade barriers. He shows some needed reserve when it comes to restrictions on capital flows, but other than that he is an unabashed globalist. Unlike Chua's work which isn't meant to be anti-globalization stuff, but can be used that way, Bhagwati's work is purely pro-globalization.

Editorial Review:

In the passionate debate that currently rages over globalization, critics have been heard blaming it for a host of ills afflicting poorer nations, everything from child labor to environmental degradation and cultural homogenization. Now Jagdish Bhagwati, the internationally renowned economist, takes on the critics, revealing that globalization, when properly governed, is in fact the most powerful force for social good in the world today. Drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of international and development economics, Bhagwati explains why the "gotcha" examples of the critics are often not as compelling as they seem. With the wit and wisdom for which he is renowned, Bhagwati convincingly shows that globalization is part of the solution, not part of the problem.

The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to Manage the Changes, Challenges, and Opportunities

Douglas Brown, Scott Wilson

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Black Book of outsourcing 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is excellent. It discusses why outsourcing is essential for doing business and the process requried to do so. It is straight forward, good for not only for Companies interested to outsource, but also anybody who is interested to learn about outsourcing.

Editorial Review:

The Black Book of Outsourcing is a comprehensive guide and directory for the emerging field of outsourcing, including expert advice on how to operate an outsourcing program, how to deal with the political aspects of outsourcing, and how to find a career in outsourcing. A controversial and emotional subject among business leaders and workers in the global business community, outsourcing is fast becoming one of the greatest organizational and industrial shifts in modern history. In this one-of-a-kind resource, outsourcing gurus Douglas Brown and Scott Wilson chart a course for business leaders charged with managing outsourcing initiatives and present a wealth of employment opportunities for workers who want to enter this growing field.

Dubai & Co.: Global Strategies for Doing Business in the Gulf States

Aamir A. Rehman

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Editorial Review:

Why Dubai?

It's been called the fastest-growing city on earth-a hub for the Gulf region experiencing unprecedented growth in energy, financial services, consumer goods, hospitality, retail, real estate, technology, shipping, and countless other industries. According to global strategist and advisor to Fortune 500 companies Aamir A. Rehman, no truly global firm can afford to ignore the booming Gulf region. The key, however, is to approach the region with savvy strategies for managing risks and drawbacks, while crafting business models designed for this unique market. Welcome to Dubai & Co.

This up-close, in-depth guide will help you to:

• Deepen your understanding of a region of critical importance to global business
• Change your perceptions about the Gulf states and the broader Middle East
• Create corporate strategies that fit your firm and the region
• Expand your international business to make it faster, bigger, and better
• Access Gulf capital more effectively, enabling expansion and generating both local and global profits

This essential hands-on book will show you how to successfully navigate the region's most attractive markets: the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman. You'll learn the key characteristics of each country-historical, demographic, political, economic, and regulatory-in order to adapt your business to each unique environment. You'll hear stories of major companies that paved the way for your success. Whether you're already doing business in the Middle East or just thinking about expanding your company into new markets, Dubai & Co. is the perfect guide to one of the greatest growth opportunities in the world.

Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business

Charles Hampden-Turner, Fons Trompenaars

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Editorial Review:

As U.S. organizations continue to explore overseas business opportunities, they will be challenged to adapt to the new market's local characteristics, legislation, fiscal regime, sociopolitical environment and cultural system. Riding the Waves of Culture shows international managers how to build the skills, sensitivity, and cultural awareness needed to establish and sustain management effectiveness across cultural borders. This revised edition is updated with new research and statistics.

More than an encyclopedia of cultures and customs, this essential guide:

• Describes successful and failed cross-cultural business transactions of multinational organizations such as AT&T, Heineken, Motorola and Volvo
• Offers techniques managers can use to anticipate and mediate some of the difficult dilemmas of international management
• Uses country-by-country graphs, examples, and other comparisons to illustrate how different cultures regard and respond to various management approaches
• Includes a CD-ROM of graphs, charts, and exercises to help readers evaluate their effectiveness as a global manager

Where am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes

Kelsey Timmerman

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

HIGHLY Recommended 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I have just finished reading one of the most provocative books I have ever come across. This book left me intrigued and fascinated with where my clothes are made. Not only that, but it left me wanting to know the origin of everything I use on a daily basis. I doubt anyone could leave this book without feeling the need to do something.

"Where am I Wearing" chronicles author Kelsey Timmerman's journey through the companies, factories, and people who make his clothes. His journey takes him from Honduras to Bangladesh, from Cambodia to China, and back home again to a company and factory in the United States. "Sweatshop" is not an unfamiliar word to anyone in America. Yet Mr. Timmerman leaves his tour with a much different view of the word and the garment industry than the reader expects.

Through his journey, Mr. Timmerman poses questions and proposes solutions that aren't typical of the garment-industry protester. In fact, he sets himself apart from these protesters by having actually visited the factories and met the people who make his clothes. As a homeschooling mom, Mr. Timmerman leaves me desiring to take a similar journey with my children. It's an experience every American could use in their lifetime.

The reader should be aware that reading "Where am I Wearing" might be uncomfortable. It might force you to look at your own life differently, and it will likely move you to action of some sort (even if just to look at your own tags before you get dressed in the morning).

Mr. Timmerman took a chance when he jumped on a plane to Honduras. It was a chance worth taking as he has produced a well-written, thoughtful book that is WELL worth the read.

Editorial Review:

A journalist travels to Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Honduras, and back to the U.S. to trace the origins of our clothes

Globalization makes it difficult for anyone to know very much about the origin of the products they buy. When journalist and traveler Kelsey Timmerman wanted to know where his clothes came from and who made them, he began a journey that would take him from Honduras to Bangladesh to Cambodia to China and back again. On the way, he discovered as much about people as he did about clothes and globalization. Bouncing between two worlds--that of impoverished garment workers and his own luxurious Western lifestyle--he puts a personal face on the controversial issues of globalization and outsourcing. Whether bowling with workers in Cambodia or riding a roller coaster with workers in Bangladesh, Timmerman bridges the gap between impersonal economic forces and the people most directly affected by them.

International Business

Donald Ball, Wendell H. McCulloch, Michael Geringer, Michael S. Minor, Jeanne M. McNett

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fast Delivery and exceptional quality 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Everything was great about the transaction, from the delivery to the Quality, I am very pleased.

Editorial Review:

International Business: The Challenge of Global Competition, 11th Edition, by Ball, McCulloch, Geringer, Minor and McNett continues to be the most objective and thorough treatment of International Business available for students. Enriched with maps, photos, and the most up-to-date world data, this text boasts the collective expertise of five authors with firsthand international business experience, specializing in international management, finance, law, global strategy, and marketing �a claim no other text can make. In addition, each new copy of International Business, 11e includes access to CESIM �an interactive IB simulation developed for industry professionals. Ball, et al is the only textbook on the market which features access to CESIM. Only Ball, McCulloch, Geringer, Minor and McNett can offer a complete view of International Business as diverse as the backgrounds of business students.

When Cultures Collide: Leading Across Cultures

Richard D. Lewis

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book. From its marketing, I thought that "When Cultures Collide: Managing Successfully Across Cultures" pertained specifically to dealing with people of different nationalities in the business place. And indeed, it is a most useful book for that purpose. However, I was struck by how much one could apply Lewis' analyses to other situations, for example, dealing with people of other nationalities on a social level. Indeed, I have many aquaintances, and some close friends, from diverse backgrounds, and this book sometimes occupies us for entire evenings, discussing our experiences with one another. The chapter on Hungarians I found particularly accurate, and entertaining. I believe that Lewis would have enjoyed hearing some of these discussions (and arguments). My point is: don't dismiss this book thinking it is a businessman's tool. It's a good read for anybody who encounters people of other nationalities and cultures, irrespective of the context.

Editorial Review:

The successful managers for the next century will be the culturally sensitive ones. You can gain competitive advantage from having strategies to deal with the cultural differences you will encounter in any international business setting. Richard Lewis provides a guide to working and communicating across cultures, and explains how your culture and language affect the ways in which you think and respond. This revised and expanded edition in paperback of Richard Lewis's book provides an ever more global and practical guide not just to understanding but also managing in different business cultures. From India to Ireland, Belgium to Brazil, Mexico to Malaysia, the Czech Republic to Chile.

Stewardship : Choosing Service over Self-Interest

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Editorial Review:

In this revolutionary book, Peter Block shows how a far-reaching redistribution of power, privilege, and wealth will radically change all areas of organizational governance, and shows why this is our best hope to enable democracy to thrive, our spiritual and ethical values to be lived out, and economic success to be sustained.

Organizations that practice stewardship, Block explains, will succeed in their marketplace by choosing service over self-interest at every point and by a far-reaching redistribution of power, privilege, and wealth. Without this, little real change will result.

Stewardship explains how to integrate the management of work and the doing of work, to redistribute purpose and power within an organization. It speaks about how this can affect work flow, quality control, performance appraisal, pay systems, supervisory methods, job design, and human resources.

Managers who are dissatisfied with the superficial changes resulting from currently popular programs, will learn how to achieve lasting, broad-based improvements in their organizations.

Megacommunities: How Leaders of Government, Business and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today's Global Challenges Together

Reginald Van Lee, Mark Gerencser, Fernando Napolitano, Christopher Kelly

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Editorial Review:

A hurricane strikes a city; terrorists attack a nation; global warming threatens the environment--such problems are too large for any one authority to solve alone. Our increasingly globalized and interconnected world calls for a new type of tri-sector leadership in which business, government and nonprofits work together in a state of permanent negotiation. To be effective, tomorrow’s leaders will need to reach across national and sector divisions to form a collaborative “megacommunity.”

 

Based on interviews with over 100 leaders from around the world including Bill Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Kenneth Chenault and Richard Parsons, MEGACOMMUNITIES: How Leaders of Government, Business and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today's Global Challenges Together introduces a radically new framework for reaching solutions to today’s thorniest problems.  Written by four senior consultants from global consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton, and with a Foreword by Walter Isaacson, this important book explains how a megacommunity approach is:

 

COUNTERING AIDS, ALZHEIMER’S AND GLOBAL PANDEMICS 
In India, a megacommunity battles HIV/AIDS by bringing together both public, private, and civil-sector organizations, including PepsiCo, the Gates Foundation, U.S. healthcare experts, UN development programs, and local NGOs.

 

CONSERVING THE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
In saving the world's rainforests, providers, distributors, sellers, and consumers of lumber team up with local communities, the World Wildlife Fund, and Goldman Sachs.

 

HELPING COMMUNITIES GROW
In changing neighborhoods like Harlem, the megacommunity includes local small businesses, community groups, global companies, and foundations like Bill Clinton's.

 

“What is required are leaders who know how to identify the vital interests they share with others, who are prepared to seek the benefits from which all can gain,” write the authors.

 

Visit their website at: www.megacommunities.com

 

Managing in a Global Economy: Demystifying International Macroeconomics (Economic Applications, InfoTrac® Printed Access Card)

John E. Marthinsen

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Editorial Review:

Marthinsen's MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: DEMYSTIFYING INTERNATIONAL MACROECONOMICS is written specifically for MBA students and addresses important issues confronting business managers. This exciting new first edition presents macroeconomics in the context of real world decision-making, It helps students grasp practical "big picture" concepts, nurtures an understanding of what causes macroeconomic variables to change, and relates these changes to issues confronting managers. Marthinsen integrates the three major macroeconomic sectors (i.e., the real goods market, real loanable funds market, and foreign exchange market) in a user-friendly way with a minimum of math and only supply and demand analysis. Liberating readers from dry, overly complex macroeconomic models, Marthinsen uses theory only as a means to an end for practical understanding. Clear and concise, the book focuses on concrete business examples to show how economic shocks, such as monetary and fiscal policies or shifts in international capital flows, affect management decisions. The book was written for MBAs who were not necessarily economics majors, making it appealing to students with a variety of undergraduate backgrounds. Marthinsen keeps readers visually engaged with strategic use of figures, tables, charts, and illustrative exhibits. MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY offers a strategic focus, emphasizes the interaction among markets, and equips MBAs with a macroeconomic perspective that will last (and be used) for years.