Globalization: latest trends or permanent development direction?

Abstract

The article views economic globalization in the theoretical and historical context. Analysing the origins of terminological interpretations, a new approach is being developed regarding the globalization’s objectivity and irreversibility as an inherent element in the development of the human community and international economic relations. Its commonalities and differences from the internationalization of the world economy are indicated. This raises the question of the globalization’s timing as a process, to answer which there are different approaches. The author examines the existing variants of periodization of globalization processes, as well as its peculiarities in the times of the global financial crisis of 2008–2010. He concludes that globalization is an objective process of the human community (economic) development of the area of its residence and that it is characteristic for the whole period of humanity’s existence. It is caused by the innate propensity of humanity for cooperation. However, it revealed its clear orientation after the Age of Discovery, intensified in the late nineteenth century (due to the industrialization of leading European nations and the colonization of the African continent and other non-European territories) and became a major trend in world economic development in the late 20th – early 21st centuries. Particular attention is paid to the problem of using a single national currency as an international means of payment (referring primarily to the US dollar), which is a feature of the current stage of globalization.