Computer makers buy hard drives from Malaysia, monitors from Taiwan and processor chips from California. But llicit drugs, arms, and oil far overshadow the computer marketplace by volume and value. Money laundering takes advantage of new global opportunities to move money anonymously.
Mercenary companies offer their services to weakening nation states.
This section looks at concrete cases of globalization that demonstrate powerful and sometimes surprising and contradictory trends. This article from the Los Angeles Times explores the way in which globalization has permanently altered our concept of property. The second World Water Forum, ending last week, evoked a mixed reaction amongst participants, some alleging that developing countries' interests were sidelined by global corporations and institutions like the World Bank. The second World Water Forum at the Hague is an international initiative bringing about debate regarding the future of water policy - a resource increasingly being treated as a commodity, with privatization being promoted as the only effective means of combating shortages and rising prices. An article from Le Monde Diplomatique that looks at the effects of globalization on the privatization of knowledge.