World 3.0: Global Prosperity and How to Achieve It

Somewhere both above and between Thomas Friedman's nearly unbridled enthusiasm for globalization and the paranoid Marxist rhetoric of undergraduate sociology courses comes World 3.0, a more realistic and fact-based approach to world socioeconomic dynamics. Ghemawat eschews the "golden straitjacket" ideology so integral to Friedman's approach with a vengeance and suggests that globalizing countries need not give up anything. Open borders, he argues, will lead to a much better living standard for all. He offers the "Law" of Distance as a new paradigm for understanding future global dynamics. Ghemawat maintains that a cultural distance must be kept between sovereign nations (in other words, throwing away the paradigm of what he describes as World 2.0). "Globalization" is not nearly as prevalent as many believe, and Ghemawat utilizes a smattering of economic philosophy, which if properly applied by players in World 2.0, will help keep economic, social, and political borders separate yet together. Ultimately, this book may only be accessible to the most advanced academic readers, but it should be included on the reading list of anyone interested in the subject. (May)