Great article on unflat world

ARTICLE: "Global Ties Under Stress As Nations Grab Power: Trade, Environment Face New Threats; Balkanized Internet," by Bob Davis, Wall Street Journal, 28 April 2008, p. A1.

Forget the goofy title and subtitle. "Global ties" are not "under stress," and nations aren't "grabbing power" ("Look, there's some! Let's go grab it!"). Talk of "new threats" is bullshit, and the "Balkanized" Internet is just one that isn't an American garden.

The Murdoch influence, apparently.

The actual article is very sensible and well written. All it really says is that states that are embracing globalization are stepping up their controls over content and connectivity, that they're just not lying back and saying, "Do what you must with me, globalization, for you are the master and I am the slave."

So yeah, not as simple as the "flat" metaphor, but hardly overturning its utility as a descriptor. Just a bit of yang to go with the yin. The stepping up by states is a sign of how much globalization remakes them, not a sign of how much they remake globalization. Confusing friction with force is a constant mistake in this business.

Yergin puts it well, "The era of easy globalization is over." Now that we have so much more connectivity, now comes the effort to tame it and manage it better. This is much like America after its radical expansion following the Civil War. We already had the land in hand, but the settlement is what exploded after the war. At first, all that connectivity begat a nasty, predatory capitalism that ruined the environment, polluted the society and corrupted politics. So clean-up was the next phase: the Progressive Era.

You need a strong state to regulate and tame a raw capitalism of the sort that's spread so rapidly around the planet in recent years. That's all we're talking about here.

Once control is reasonably established, further openness comes in response to the desire for improved competitiveness, so we shift from extensive connectivity to intensive connectivity, and—again—you need strong and efficient and "good" governments to manage that transition.

So spare me the "grab the power" hyperbole. Expect to spot many "Theodore the Sudden" types in rising New Core powers. It's a natural development, so don't freak out.