The potentially lethal results of this trend can be seen in the large-scale political conflicts that spawned the Cold War and its Cuban missile crisis. Yet politics also implies ethics. Secular political systems give moral instruction indirectly through legislation and via civil instruction. The second and current stage of the transformation began in earnest during the latter half of the 20th century, when petroleum became the world s largest industry. Its provenance and production lay beyond the scope of any single nation-state, no matter how powerful.
Oil is multinationalism s eldest son.
These, along with novel economic forces such as the EEC, Nafta and other trading blocs broke down political insularity and paved the way for further multinationalism. States with enlightened leadership realised that economic development and increased prosperity were desirable and attainable goals. On this coin s other side was the realisation that economic sanctions against rogue states became increasingly preferable to military incursions. The transition from multinationalism to globalisation has been affected most dramatically by the information revolution by the advent of the personal computer, the invention of the Internet and the creation and exploration of cyberspace. The medium of cyberspace facilitates multi-modal communication, warehousing and retrieval of data, and tracks commercial transactions of goods and services, all of which transcend local political control.