Globalization entails the growing interdependence amongst the world’s economies, cultures, and populations. This has been mainly brought up by cross-border trade in goods, services, and cultures, technology, information, and flows of investments. Multilateralism on the other hand, refers to the alliance of multiple nations pursuing a similar goal. The world has increasingly become interdependent, in social, economic, and political perspectives, where a variety of factors have greatly influenced the interdependence between all these nations.
A major key factor leading to globalization, multilateralism, and interdependence, is increased trade among nations. The number of exports and imports amongst nations across the globe has been on a high rise. As trade amongst nations increase, then there is more demand for outer necessities such as human labor, leading to more interactions between people of diverse cultures, and beliefs, a factor that led to more social interactions and eventually furthering the economic interdependence between nations across the world (Pettinger, 2021). Through trade, there is also a widespread movement of goods internationally, capital services, technology, and information. Then there is ultimately an increased economic integration and interdependence of national, regional, and local economies across the world, which is brought about by the intensification of cross border movement of goods, services, and capital (Chacha & Powell, 2017). The increase in international trade over years, as a result, led to more globalization, where important sectors of the economy are stimulated. As a result of international trade, then the involved economies have experienced stimulated economic growth, where it has offered many opportunities to business offered by the foreign markets.
Another major factor leading to globalization, economic interdependence, and political multilateralism, and interdependence is Containerization. This entails the use of containers in the transportation of goods from one country and continent to another. The costs of shipping have been on a gradual downward trend, which is attributed to bulk shipping, containerization, and other efficiencies (Surugiu & Surugiu, 2015). As a result, people and companies across the world, are easily able to transport their bulk goods, which is a factor that has helped reduce the costs of manufacturing closer to those in export markets. It has also helped nations be able to exchange goods and other commodities easily without high cargoes, hence leading to more interactions and more interdependence amongst countries.
Another key factor that has given a rise to globalization and interdependence between nations includes the vast technological change. There has been a major paradigm shift in the use of technology in almost all sectors. Many individuals and companies can communicate and interact without physically meeting since online platforms make it easier, cheaper, and more effective to communicate for reasons of trading, socializing, or any other interactions (Schwellnus, Pak, Pionnier, & Crivellaro, 2018). This has led to an exchange of cultures, more online trading platforms, and sharing of ideas and innovations, a factor that has led to the growth of globalization and interdependence between nations, which looks to further grow, as the technology advances further coming years.
Conclusion
Multiple factors are involved in the rise of globalization, economic interdependence, and political multilateralism and interdependence. One of the major factors that continue to ensure interdependence between nations is trade. International trade has been on a massive rise, where countries across continents and between regions export and import products, leading to more interactions and interdependence between them. Technology has also been a major part of globalization and nations’’ interdependence, where it has greatly helped in facilitating communication between individuals and parties without physical movements. Finally, Containerization has also significantly aided in globalization, where the prices of transporting goods across water bodies have over years significantly dropped, making it easier to transport bulk goods, leading to a major boost in international trade.
