ABSTRACT
In many respects, the globalizing economy of the 1990s is the latest stage in the enlargement of the spatial dimension of economic activity which dates back to pre-industrial times. Essentially, its speed and direction has been conditioned by advances in transport and communications technologies, and by the actions of governments in affecting the creation, management and disposition of physical and human assets. Yet, it is only in our lifetime that the role of trade, foreign direct investment and cross-border strategic alliances has become such a critical determinant of economic progress. And, it has only been in the last twenty years that the world economy has become so structurally interdependent that the use of the world global, as distinct from international, has become justifiable.
