Globalization Pulling Back?

In light of growing political backlashes across the developed world, Vice Chancellor Jeffrey Lehman and Dean of Business Yuxin Chen staged a stimulating debate on Thursday to explore the pros and cons about globalization, a major driving force of economic and social changes during past decades.

Moderated by Associate Vice Chancellor Xiao-Jing Wang, the discussion started with Professor Lehman defining globalization as “an increased movement of goods, services, money, people and ideas” in three dimensions---volume, distance and speed.

According to the two scholars, even though globalization was first mentioned in as early as 1930s, the term did not gain popularity until 2005, when Pulitzer winner Thomas Friedman analyzed it in The World Is Flat. However, as the global economy sank in prolonged crisis in 2008, globalization has been constantly questioned since then.  

In the ensuing conversation, Prof. Lehman presented the anti-globalization case, while Prof. Chen argued for continued globalization, both covering a wide range of questions touching on the different models of globalization, the benefits it brings and the risks of anti-globalization movements.

“The anti-globalization movement is not a new thing. Already 15 years ago, the movement was also active in developing countries, like China, where the domestic resistance to join WTO was high,” Prof. Chen said. “The reason why the recent wave has received so much attention is because it is happening in developed countries like the US and Europe.”

Chen said globalization may inevitably hurt certain groups of people at beginning, but in the long run, it will increase “the total size of the pie” in terms of economic development, from which a larger population will reap the benefits.

In order for globalization to survive, Prof. Lehman stressed that governments should step forward with plans to further tax the elites and improve social welfare. It will help narrow the divide between elites and those he calls “the newly excluded” population, who do not feel economically and culturally respected in a society.

He encouraged students to nurture creativity and develop multi-cultural effectiveness while studying at NYU Shanghai, even in the face of current anti-globalization setbacks.

“Globalization may slow down, but it will not go away. The skillsets you are developing at this moment will still be incredibly valuable in the future,” he said.