WITH the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, a new concept of globalisation entered the world’s political consciousness. The Cold War had ended, and a unipolar world emerged with the US at its centre.
Analysts predicted that the world would be one global village with a high level of interdependence between economies and cultures, and freer flows of goods, services, finance and people. Some analysts declared the victory of the liberal democratic order and market economies. Francis Fukuyama, in his famous 1989 article ‘End of History’, asserted that the evolution of political science had culminated in the triumph of liberal democracy and market economies over competing political systems.
There were euphoric expectations that the globalised world would benefit rich and poor nations alike because of interdependence. Thomas Friedman, in his 2005 book The World is Flat, noted that in the globalised world, historical and geographical divisions would gradually become irrelevant, and with a level playing field, traders would compete in a global market.