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It Is a Flat World, after All?

Author(s): Thomas L. Friedman, Frances Cairncross, Rosaleen Duffy and Pankaj Ghemawat
Source: Foreign Policy, No. 160 (May - Jun., 2007), pp. 4, 6
Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25462158 .
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 I L E T T E R S

Is theWorld Flat? Which directionhave events

yourself:
been going?
FP. PankajGhemawatsaysthe world isnot THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Foreign Policy'.
flat ("Why theWorld Isn't Flat," Columnist
March/April2007). No kidding.In The New York Times
Moists NAfM
EDITOR INCHIEF
arguing thatglobalization
andeconomic Bethesda, Md.

integration
are stillfarfroma reality,
WILLIAM J. DOBSON
MANAGING EDITOR
Ghemawat failsto take intoaccount Just how dead is distance? It seems
thebiggerpictureofwhat is actually Ghemawat believes it isverymuch alive.
MICHAEL C. BOYER, CHRISTINE Y. CHEN
SENIOR EDITORS
takingplace inthebusinessworld.His He is correct thatmost social and eco
narrowfocuson the"10 percent"of nomic activity remains local, or at least
KATE G. PALMER
DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR
internationalizationacross certain national. There are stillnational tastes,
industries
obscuresmy basicargument cultures, ideas,andpolicies, allofwhich
PREETI AROON, CAROLYN O'HARA
ASSISTANT EDITORS
about thefuture ofglobalization. reflect large crinkles on the surface of a
Obviously,theworld isnotyetflat. supposedlyflatworld.What's more,
PRERNA MANKAD
But my larger point is that the "flat many economicactivities continueto
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
tening"technologies and processesof depend on "face time."Complex human
KELLY E. PETERSON globalizationnow underway are the interactions-deal-making, top-level
ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR
most important developments notjustin advice,or delicateconversations-are
HENRY BOWLES, MICHAEL H. COGNATO, economicsbut also in government, easier between people in the same room.
HuGH COLLINS
RESEARCHERS
politics,
war,finance, journalism, inno Butglobalization hasalreadychanged
vation,and societyingeneral.
Flattening much, and itwill change more. First,
TRAVIS C. DAUB
ART DIRECTOR
technologiesare empoweringindi international trade as a share of the
viduals, in previously unheard of world economy is larger than ever
SARAH N. SCHUMACHER
DESIGNER
ways, to reachfarther, faster,deeper, before. One major consequence is that
and cheaper than ever before.Big surges in the labor markets of China
ELIZABETH GLASSANOS
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
institutions,fromnewspapers and and India influencewages around the
television
networksto softwarefirms world. As education levels rise in these
BLAKE HOUNSHELL
WEB EDITOR
andTexas powercompanies, arebeing countriesand throughout Asia, their
fundamentally transformed or chal impacton developedeconomieswill
THOMAS R. STEC
WEBMASTER
lenged by these super-empowered grow. Second, the seismic shift in the
individuals.
Two tinyenvironmental costs of digital communications is
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS groupsjustheldup thebiggestlever already transferring jobs-though
JacquesAttali, Paris; JorgeI.Dominguez, aged buyoutinhistory-thedeal for often a few layers in a company move
Cambridge,Mass.; Yoichi Funabashi,Tokyo;
TXU,theTexas electrical utility-until abroad, not a whole industry.Other
YegorT. Gaidar,Moscow; AndresOrtega,Madrid;
Gianni Riotta,Rome itwas reshapedto theirliking.Tell shiftswill take time to have their full
them theworld is not flat. effect.Remember that it took a centu
CONTRIBUTING
WRITER
David L. Bosco
You need only look at the front ryfromtheinvention
of thetelephone
pages of the paper every day to see it. for banking tomigrate from the high
EDITORIAL
BOARD And anyonewho thinksthat some street to thewires.
MortonAbramowitz, JohnDeutch,Lawrence Freedman,
DiegoHidalgo,Stanley
Hoffsnann,RobertD. Hormats, protectionist
measures are going to world'soutputisnow
The developing
ThomasL.Hughes, KarlKaiser,Jessica
T.Mathews, DonaldR put YouTube back in the bottle-not greater than that of the developed
McHenry,CesareMerlini,
ThierrydeMontbrial,JosephS.Nye
SoliOzel,MoeenQureshi,
Jr., JohnL. Rielly,
WilliamD. tomentionthe Web, bloggers,global world. Some analysts predict that the
Rogers,
Klaw Schwab,
Strobe
HelmutSonnenfeldt,
Richard
Talbott, H. Ullman,
Lawrence
Stephen
Summers,
M. Walt
cell-phonenetworks,work-flowsoft economies of China and India will
ware, and thelogicofoutsourcing become larger than theUnited States'
PUBLISHED BY is blind to the dramatic changes that within a lifetime.That shiftof economic
have already taken hold. This is not power will have momentous conse
CARNEGIEENDOWMENT about a snapshot, a "10 percent pre massive political
quences, including
FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE sumption" of integration at a moment implications. The world may not be
in time. This is about trend lines and flat,but mountains are crumbling.
FOREIGN POLICY a scale of change brought on by these FRANCES CAIRNCROSS
1779MassachusettsAvenue,NW new technologies.
Ghemawatmight Rector
Washington,DC 20036
want to get out of his ivory tower Exeter College
PublishingOffice: (202) 939-2230
Subscriptions:(800) 535-6343 and actually go out into the business University of Oxford
www.ForeignPolicy.com world to see the incrediblydiverse Oxford, England
02007 by theCarnegieEndowment
All rights
reserved.
FOREIGN
forInternational
Peace.
POLIcYanditslogoaretrademarks
global companies that individuals
of theCaregie Endowment forInternational
Peace,which are puttingtogetherwith very little Rather than considering whether the
bearsno responsibilityfortheeditorialcontent;theviews
expressed arethose
inthearticles of theauthors.
No partofthis capital. Ghemawat's argument is just world is flat,Ghemawat instead should
may
publication be inanyform
reproduced withoutpermission
inwritingfromthepublisher. the latest in a series dismissing the have addressed where, when, and for
notion that theworld is flat since whom thisisthecase.Advancesincom
GENERALEXCELLENCE ' ,
my book was released.But justask munications andeaseof travel
todistant
4 FOREIGN POLICY

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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 I Letters

locationsillustrate how,forsome,the ofproximity toclients'localoperations.

world certainlyis flat.However, as The examples thatFriedman does
Ghemawatdemonstrates, thatis not mentionaremoremystifying. I don't
thestoryforeveryone. seewhat two environmental groups
After 10 years of -conducting holding up theTXu deal has to do with
LAUREN TROTTA STUMBORG
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER & GENERAL MANAGER
researchin sub-Saharan Africa,I am globalization-andI'veevenreadFried
convincedthatglobalizationhas pro man's columnon thetopic.Surely,the
ANNETTE MUNROE
CIRCULATION DIRECTOR
duced a verypotent, and possibly more interesting globalization-related
toxic,mix of extremes. Itcan increase headlineoutofTexas inrecent months
GINA FALZARANO
CIRCULATIONASSOCIATE
levelsofpoverty, marginalization, and concerns Halliburton'srelocation of its
exclusionin exactlythesameplaces corporateheadquarterstoDubai, a
JONATHAN W. MCCLOSKEY
BUSINESS ASSISTANT
where itproduces wealth,integration,move thatwould be unnecessaryina
and inclusion. An exampleis theglob flatworld.AndYouTube's mostobvious
AMY RUSSELL al trade in colored gemstones, such as (ifstilltenuous)connection toourdebate
DIRECTOR OF SALES sapphires.InMadagascar,forinstance, is through peer-to-peer traffic,
which,
MARIA SAN JOSE youcan find wealthygemstone dealers according toexperts,isnotonlybecom
ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVE alongsideillicit miningwith extremely ingthelargest component of traffic
on
poor working conditions,massive theInternet but isalso quite localized.
ALEXIA SAGEMULLER
CORPORATE PROGRAMS DIRECTOR
poverty, and extensiveenvironmental Exaggerationis alsomy issuewith
degradation. Or considertourism, one Frances Cairncross,whose work I
ANA MARIE TINSLER
CORPORATE PROGRAMS ASSISTANT
of theworld'sbiggestindustries, as yet otherwisefindinteresting. In response,
anotherexample of globalization's Iwould argue thatsomemeasuresof
JEFF MARN uneven nature.Wealthy Western internationalization-immigration
MEDIA RELATIONS MANAGER tourists visitdevelopingcountries and intensity, forexample-appeartohave
stay in five-starhotels. They gaze at the peakedbefore WorldWar I.Others,such
RANDOLPH F. MANDERSTAM
SYNDICATION COORDINATOR
rampantpovertyoutsidetheirresorts as foreign directinvestment, are indeed
and are persuaded by hoteliers and setting new records, butonlyrelatively
tour operators that what they see is recently. And finally,
whenwe lookat the
SUBSCRIPTIONS & SUBSCRIBER SERVICES
FOREIGNPOLICY, P.O. Box 474, Mt. Morris, IL
traditionallife.This is thetoxicmix global trade-to-gross domestic product
61054-8499; www.ForeignPolicy.com; e-mail: producedbyglobalization and thereal (GDP) ratio,we see an increase from20
frnp@kable.com; (800) 535-6343 inU.S.; (815) danger towhichGhemawat alludes. percentin1979 to27 percentin2004.
734-1235 outside U.S.; Publications mail agree
ment no. 40778561. Rates (inU.S. funds): -ROSALEEN DUFFY Extrapolating over thenext25 years
$24.95 forone year; $44 for two years. Canada Associate Professor of Politics despitecurrently stalledtradetalksgives
add $9/yr.forpostage and handling; other Centre for International Politics us a trade-to-GDP ratio of less than 35
countries add $15/yr.For academic rates, go to
www.ForeignPolicy.com/education. percentby2030-unprecedented,
Manchester University but
Manchester, England hardlyrevolutionary.
ADVERTISING & FP
CORPORATE PROGRAMS
Finally,I ammystifiedbyRosaleen
BPA
Call (202) 939-2243. WO, LDWIDE Pankaj Ghemawat replies: thatI shouldhave
Duffy'sinsistence
Thomas Friedmanseemsnot tohave writtenmy articleabout something
NEWSSTAND AND BOOKSTORE DISTRIBUTION read beyond the title of my article. If other than what I did. Although the
CurtisCirculationCompany,730 RiverRoad, New he had, he would have realized that the impactof globalizationon povertyis
Milford,NJ 07646-3048; (201) 634-7400.
10 percentpresumption
isn'tbasedon one of themost important issues of
BACK ISSUES
a narrow focus on "certain industries." our time, so is assessing how much
$10.95 per copy. International
airmailadd $3.00 per My measuresof the internationaliza globalizationactuallyexists.Given
copy; online:www.ForeignPolicy.com; e-mail: tionof investment, forexample,aggre Friedman'sand Cairncross'sinfluen
fp@CarnegieEndowment.org. gate across all industries. But such a tial,book-length argumentsthatthe
realization
probably wouldn'thavemade world is flatand distance isdead, there
MEDIA INQUIRIES
muchofa difference, sinceFriedman has seems to be room fora seven-page arti
ContactJeff
Main (202) 939-2242;
very little use for data. The 450-plus cle that relies on data to argue the
jmarn@CamegieEndowment.org.
pages of hisWorld Is Flat do not contain opposite.
SYNDICATIONREQUESTS a single table, chart, or footnote.
Instead, we get a jumble of stories held
Debating Iraq's
ContactRandolph F.Manderstam (202) 939-2241;
rmanderstam@CarnegieEndowment.org. with hyperbole.
together
OTHER PERMISSION REQUESTS
Friedman's responsealso fails to
address his anecdote that I dealt with at
Winners
CopyrightClearance Center,Inc. (978) 750-8400;
www.copyright.com. lengthinmy article:softwarefirms Bill Emmott is rightto argue that the Iraq
settingup deliverycentersinLatin war triggeredrecordoil prices,
making
PUBLISHED BY America-despite labor costs being petrostatessomeof thewar's biggest
CARNEGIEENDOWMENT higherthanin India-to
significantly winners("WhoWins inIraq?The Price
FOR INTERNAXTIONALPLACE
overcome differences intimezonesand ofOil,"March/April 2007).Buthe fails
language,aswell as to takeadvantage tomentionoil companies. Thewar in
6 FOREIGN POLICY

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