Defense of Globalization

Jagdish Bhagwati and the Defense of Globalization

It has lately become fashionable to talk about the evil face of globalization as a parasitic force that devours small nations and economies for the benefit of the rich and powerful countries. The anti-globalization movement today has a wide range of supporters, in the West and developing countries, among politicians, scholars, students, environmentalists, human rights activists, and many others. Globalization, these critics contend, further enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor, by using international trade and financial institutions and imposing Western forms of economics on the rest of the world. But in this paper I argue, using insights and arguments from the works of Columbia law and economics professor Jagdish Bhagwati, that the attacks on globalization are contradictory, misguided, and unjustified. Globalization, I argue, has been a force for good in the West and the rest of the world.

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