To what extent is regional integration in North America part of globalisation - Essay Example

Occupying such a vast geographical area and sound population in the three countries of NAFTA, the regional integration at this level certainly helped in the globalization. Globalization is defined as a process of complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes with increasing interdependence, integration and interaction between people and companies in different locations. It involves internationalization, deterritorilization, universalization, westernization and liberalization.

The term globalization was used in 1940s but scholars began applying it in early 1980s. It is reported that Theodore Levitt coined the word “globalization”. Globalization also means the process of moving close to each other by different countires with a sole objective of collective benefit in terms of trade (Colas Alejandro, 2005 and Hulsmeyer, 2003). Globalization can also be described as the the intensification and integration of the consciousness of the world as a whole. It is also used to refer to these collective changes as a process, or else as the cause of turbulent change (James, 2005, Jones,2000 and Randall,2000).

Globalization stimulates economic reforms whose economic efficiency and political acceptability are increased through regional cooperation (Schrim,2002). New Regionalism contributes positively for globalization in three aspects: it offers a new theoretical approach to integration theory; it develops a distinct interpretative model for the impact of globalization on states; and it compares systematically the influence of globalization and the preferences for cooperation cross-regionally in Europe and the Americas.

Regional integration and globalization coexist with other and they have both positive and negative effects (Perkmann and Ngai-Ling Sum, 2002). Positive effects include higher rate of export growth, faster capital accumulation and improvement in other economic