| The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century | |
| Cover Artist: | I Told You So, by E.D. Miracle; 1976. |
| Author: | Thomas Friedman |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Subject: | Globalization |
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Release Date: | April 5, 2005 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardcover and paperback) and audio-CD |
| Pages: | 488 |
| Isbn: | 0-374-29288-4 |
| Dewey: | 330.90511 22 |
| Congress: | HM846 .F74 2005 |
| Oclc: | 57202171 |
| Preceded By: | Longitudes and Attitudes |
| Followed By: | Hot, Flat, and Crowded |
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is a 2005 book by American political commentator Thomas L. Friedman. It analyzes globalization in the early 21st century, suggesting that the world has a level playing field where countries, companies, and individuals need to remain competitive in a global market. It won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005.[1]
In The World Is Flat, Friedman recounts a journey to Bangalore, India, when he realized that globalization had changed core economic concepts.[2] In his opinion, this flattening is a product of the convergence of the personal computer with fiber optic microcables and the rise of workflow software. Friedman termed the period Globalization 3.0, thereby differentiating it from the previous, Globalization 1.0, during which countries and governments were the main protagonists, and Globalization 2.0, during which multinational companies led the way in driving global integration.
Friedman recounts examples of companies based in India and China that "according to him," by providing labor ranging from that of typists and call center operators to accountants and computer programmers, have become integral parts of complex global supply chains; such companies include Dell, AOL, and Microsoft. Friedman's capitalist peace theory called Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention is discussed in the book's penultimate chapter.
Friedman defines ten "flatteners" which he sees as leveling the global playing field:
Friedman believes that to fight the quiet crisis of a flattening world, the US workforce should keep updating its work skills. Making the workforce more adaptable, Friedman argues, will keep it more employable. He also suggests that the government make it easier for people to switch jobs by making retirement benefits and health insurance less dependent on one's employer and by providing insurance that would partly cover a possible drop in income when changing jobs. Friedman also believes there should be more inspiration for youth to become scientists, engineers, and mathematicians because of a decrease in the percentage of those professionals who are American.
The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention, also known as simply the Dell Theory, is a capitalist peace theory and an updated version of Friedman's previous "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention". According to Friedman:
That is, as long as corporations have major supply chain operations in countries other than that corporation's home country, those countries will never engage in armed conflicts. This is because of the economic interdependence between nations that arises when a large corporation (such as Dell) has supply chain operations in multiple global locations and when developing nations (in which supply chain operations commonly take place) are reluctant to give up their newfound wealth.
In his previous book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Friedman argued that no two nations with a McDonald's franchise had ever gone to war with one another; this was known as the Golden Arches theory. Later, Friedman upgraded that theory into the "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention" by saying that people or nations do not just want to have a better standard of living as symbolized by a McDonald's franchise in their downtown but also want to have that lump of the labor sector that is created by globalization. That is, developing nations do not want to risk the trust of the multinational companies that venture into their markets and include them in the global supply chain.
Thomas Friedman also warns that the Dell theory should not be interpreted as a guarantee that nations that are deeply involved in global supply chains will not go to war with each other. It means, rather, that the governments of those nations and their citizens will have very heavy economic costs to consider as they contemplate the possibility of war. Such costs include long-term loss of the country's profitable participation in the global supply chain.
This theory relates with how conflict prevention occurred between India and Pakistan in their 2001–2002 nuclear standoff, wherein India was at risk of losing its global partners. The relationship between the People's Republic of China and Taiwan was also cited as an example of that theory: both countries have strong supply relations with each other.
The World Is Flat received generally favorable reviews.The Washington Post called the book an "engrossing tour" and an "enthralling read".[4]
An opposing viewpoint was found in a 2007 Foreign Policy magazine article in which economist Pankaj Ghemawat argued that 90% of the world's phone calls, Web traffic, and investments are local, suggesting that Friedman has grossly exaggerated the significance of the trends he describes: "Despite talk of a new, wired world where information, ideas, money, and people can move around the planet faster than ever before, just a fraction of what we consider globalization actually exists."[5] [6]
Some critics have pointed out that the book is written from an American perspective. Friedman's work history has been mostly with The New York Times, and that may have influenced the way the book was written - some would have preferred a book written in a more "inclusive voice".[7]
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has been critical of Friedman's book:
Richard Florida expresses similar views in his 2005 Atlantic article "The World Is Spiky".[8]
John Gray, formerly a School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science, wrote another critical review of Friedman's book called "The World Is Round". In it, Gray confirms Friedman's assertion that globalization is making the world more interconnected and, in some parts, richer but disputes the notion that globalization makes the world more peaceful or freer. Gray also declares, "least of all does it make it flat".[9]