Defining Globalization and Its Corporate Actors

Globalization is generally defined as the intensifying interconnection of economies, societies, and cultures across national borders, driven by flows of trade, capital, people, information, and ideas. Scholars commonly distinguish at least three interrelated dimensions: an economic dimension, involving the integration of markets, production chains, and finance; a political dimension, involving the growing role of international institutions and non-state actors in decisions once reserved to sovereign states; and a cultural dimension, involving the diffusion of ideas, media, consumption patterns, and lifestyles across societies. Political scientist Joseph Nye, together with Robert Keohane, helped popularize the related concept of "complex interdependence" to describe how state and non-state actors alike now shape outcomes once thought to be the exclusive domain of governments.