The growth of trade, the ability to transfer billions of dollars across borders in an nanosecond, the movement of people across the globe, the international exchange of ideas and popular culture, the globalization of environmental degradation and disease, and the globalization of production via the multinational corporation define areas or nations that are more porous and less fixed than previously assumed. The expansion of linkages across national borders demands new skills, awareness, approaches, and training. Higher education confronts a critical challenge to ensure that our students, and societies, develop the tools and perspectives to prosper in a global arena. Yet globalization does not diminish the importance of local arenas. Differences in language, culture, identity, nationality, religion, class, ethnicity, race, economy, and governance persist and thrive.
Local activities provide the roots, or local foundations, of globalization.
Domestic and international arenas are intricately intertwined. The paradox of localism and globalism challenges the university and its students to establish identities and understanding within local and global communities and cultures. Globalization demands understanding relationships across geographically distinct political, economic, and social arrangements. Some fields such as international relations, international political economy, comparative political economy, world history, and international economics have studied and taught at the local-global intersection for years. Other fields, such as anthropology and many branches of the humanities, have come to examine this intersection only recently.