The everyday reality of global connections and interconnections is familiar to most people in advanced industrial countries. In so many ways, the world and its economic life are more interconnected than ever before. This has spawned popular and intellectual concepts of ‘globalisation’.

 

Global developments increasingly impinge on all our lives bringing us opportunities that were unavailable to earlier generations. Nevertheless, despite the substantial benefits, globalisation has been blamed for many shortcomings in the modern economy and society. Some claim that the current political turmoil in many Western countries is the result of too much of it.

 

'Globalisation’ has become a scapegoat for other challenges closer to home.

 

How should business respond to the cultural and political anxieties produced by globalisation? Should business leaders speak out on these matters, or does that compound the risk? Do international business opportunities help or hinder domestic success?