The Future of Globalization and its Humanitarian Impacts

Globalization is not a new phenomenon. Nor is it likely to be a passing fad. Our
modern usage of the term merely connotes the most recent manifestations of increasing
global connectedness in what has been – and will remain – a dynamic and evolving set of
global processes. Although the popular imagination tends to think of globalization as a
primarily economic phenomenon, it is clearly more than that. And while globalization
partisans tend to portray it either as something that is fundamentally ‘good’ or essentially
‘evil,’ it can, in fact, have either or both of those effects depending on what, where and
how it is being studied.