ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we review the major trends that have shaped the path of globalization and compare perspectives on how globalization should be governed. A good place to begin is with the term “globalization” itself, which has come into widespread academic and popular use only since the early 1980s.1 In fact, globalization has rapidly come to be viewed as a central motif of modern life, whether for good or for ill depending upon one’s perspective. One indicator of the growing ubiquity of globalization in intellectual and popular discourse is that the number of books focusing upon globalization has risen from less than 600 in 1980 to over 38,000 today.2
