ABSTRACT
Globalization in the economic realm is an incontrovertible fact of life, although not a particularly recent one. Economists refer to the period 1870–1914 as the first age of globalization, a period that witnessed dramatic advances in transportation—steamship, railroads—which reduced the costs of shipping goods across borders and led to a flourishing of international trade. The growing disenchantment with globalization sparked protests at the meetings of multilateral organizations, notably the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The "fragility" of globalization, and an "imbalance between the economic, social, and political realms," meant that concerted action was required to sustain the process of continued liberalization. The UN global compact was established with noble purposes. When Kofi Annan gave his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999, there was considerable dis-content about the prospects for globalization.
