The 'New' Globalization

Globalization is an evolutionary process that modifies its structural features with time. Although structural change is generally slow and steady, sometimes it undergoes sharp accelerations. These periods of structural break permit a conventional, but not altogether arbitrary, subdivision of the process of globalization in well-defined periods. Each period shares a few common features with the preceding periods but is characterized by distinctive features that mark a discontinuity with the past. Of course the subdivision in periods may be more or less fine according to the analytic and policy purposes.