Globalization, Conflict Management and Culture

Globalization, as an increasingly dominant force since the last decades of the twentieth century, is shaping a new era of interaction between various economies throughout the world. It is increasing the contacts between people across various boundaries — geographical, political and cultural. Today, the interactions between people with different national and cultural identities are deeper than ever before. Some obvious evidence can be found in the following statistics:1 (1) Foreign direct investment (FDI) topped US$500 billion in the late 1990s, more than seven times the level in real terms in the 1970s. (2) The daily turnover in foreign exchange markets increased from around US$10–20 billion in the 1970s to US$1.5 trillion in 1998. (3) International bank lending grew from US$265 billion in 1975 to over US$6 trillion in 1999. (4) People travel more around the world, with tourism more than doubling between 1980 and 1996, from 260 million to 590 million travellers a year. (5) International migration, despite the tight restrictions, continues to grow, with the workers’ remittances reaching US$58 billion in 1996.