Globalisation, transformation and the perennity of political geography.
This piece was published in a WZB publication in 2000. I present an interpretation of the dialectical process which we call globalisation.
Globalisation, transformation and the perennity of political geographyargument is that simultaneity and non-synchronisation in the dynamics of transformation have led the old dialectics of the cold war system to be replaced by a global process of change at the level of markets, societies and cultures. Corporations are the leading revolutionaries in this process. Given the multiple linkages between the elements of the world’s transformation and their simultaneous non-synchronisation, and in particular the intimate interactions between porous frontiers and the legacies of human history, the least that can be said is that the future definitely is not traced out in linear form. The following sections present the global system after the cold war through the broad thesis of global convergence and four legacies from the past, then introduces the driving forces that move the human narrative forward, and ends by commenting the resulting dialectical processes of change which reward or punish different capabilities of organisations, particularly states, to adapt.
About Jonathan Story, Professor Emeritus, INSEAD
Jonathan Story is Emeritus Professor of International Political Economy at INSEAD. Prior to joining INSEAD in 1974, he worked in Brussels and Washington, where he obtained his PhD from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has held the Marusi Chair of Global Business at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Graduate Schoold of Business, Fordham University, New York.
He is preparing a monograph on China’s impact on the world political economy, and another on a proposal for a contextual approach to business studies. He has a chapter forthcoming on the Euro crisis. His latest book is China UnCovered: What you need to know to do business in China, (FT/ Pearson’s, 2010) (www.chinauncovered.net) His previous books include “China: The Race to Market” (FT/Pearsons, 2003), The Frontiers of Fortune, (Pitman’s, 1999); and The Political Economy of Financial Integration in Europe : The Battle of the Systems,(MIT Press, 1998) on monetary union and financial markets in the EU, and co-authored with Ingo Walter of NYU. His books have been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Arabic. He is also a co-author in the Oxford Handbook on Business and Government(2010), and has contributed numerous chapters in books and articles in professional journals. He is a regular contributor to newspapers, and has been four times winner of the European Case Clearing House “Best Case of the Year” award. His latest cases detail hotel investments in Egypt and Argentina, as well as a women’s garment manufacturer in Sri Lanka and a Chinese auto parts producer.
He teaches courses on international business and the global political economy. At the INSEAD campus, in Fontainebleau and Singapore, he has taught European and world politics, markets, and business in the MBA, and PhD programs. He has taught on INSEAD’s flagship Advanced Management Programme for the last three decades, as well as on other Executive Development and Company Specific courses. Jonathan Story works with governments, international organisations and multinational corporations.
He is married with four children, and, now, thirteen grandchildren. Besides English, he is fluent in French, German, Spanish, Italian, reads Portuguese and is learning Russian. He has a bass voice, and gives concerts, including Afro-American spirituals, Russian folk, classical opera and oratorio.
Writing about history, politics & economics 