DHL Initiative on Globalization | Publications

Challenging the Deglobalization Narrative: Global Flows Have Remained Resilient Through Recent Shocks
Steven A. Altman, Caroline R. Bastian, and Davis Fattedad, Journal of International Business Policy 
We challenge the popular narrative that the world has entered a period of deglobalization, arguing that deglobalization is still a risk rather than a current reality. Drawing upon the DHL Global Connectedness Index, we show that international flows have not decreased relative to domestic activity, there is not an ongoing shift from global to regional business, and geopolitically driven shifts in international flows still primarily involve countries at the center of present conflicts. We propose policy and research implications, warning that misperceptions of deglobalization could themselves contribute to costly reductions in international openness.
October 7, 2024

The State of Globalization in 2023
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, Harvard Business Review
Three key questions lie at the heart of debates about whether global crises and escalating geopolitical tensions have begun to reverse globalization: Has the growth of cross-border trade, capital, information and people flows gone into reverse? Are geopolitical tensions fracturing the world economy into rival blocs? And is globalization giving way to regionalization? The answer to all three questions — despite evidence of U.S.-China decoupling — is still “no.” 
(Also available in Chinese (Simplified), Italian, and Korean)
July 11, 2023

Don’t Overestimate Shifts from Globalization to Regionalization
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, UNIDO Industrial Analytics Platform
An assessment of trends in trade flows and expectations for the future.
January 2023

Trade Regionalization: More Hype than Reality?
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, Harvard Business Review
Many expected the Covid-19 pandemic to turbocharge a long-run trend toward more regionalized trade patterns. But recent data suggest a more skeptical take on trade regionalization. Trade flows have stretched out over longer distances, even during the pandemic. 
(Also available in Chinese (Traditional) and French)
May 31, 2022

The State of Globalization in 2022
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, Harvard Business Review
Global flows have surged back from declines at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, only to face a new shock prompted by war in Ukraine. We offer our take on the latest developments in international trade, capital, information, and people flows.
(Also available in Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, and Korean)
April 12, 2022  

Measuring Globalisation: Myths, Trends, and Variation across Countries
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, Chapter in Routledge Handbook of Diplomacy and Statecraft, 2nd. ed.
Questions about the state and trajectory of globalization underpin many of the central debates about the future of diplomacy and statecraft.  Is the world so deeply interconnected that foreign opportunities and threats increasingly drive developments within countries? Or is a globalized world fracturing along regional lines?   
February, 2022  

How Global Connections Can Brighten Europe's Future
Steven A. Altman and Niccolò Pisani, I by IMD
Europe’s globalization advantages are often underappreciated. The resilience of global flows and Europe’s unique position in them can help European firms to get ahead.
August 3, 2021

Digital Globalization Boom: Pandemic Crutch or Springboard to the Future?
Steven A. Altman, Delivered.
Digital information and data flows surged in 2020 as COVID-19 forced personal interactions to go online. But digital globalization is still limited, and this pandemic-era savior faces powerful threats.
June 10, 2021  

How DHL Express Navigated the Pause — and Rebound — of Global Trade
John Pearson and Steven A. Altman, Harvard Business Review
The stunning turnaround of international trade during the Covid-19 pandemic and the logistics operations behind it suggest three key lessons in resilience that run counter to conventional thinking.
(Also available in Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish)
May 18, 2021

After Covid-19, could Europe come out a winner? (in French)
Steven A. Altman and Niccolò Pisani, Les Echos
As Europe confronts slow growth, high debt, and its shrinking share of the world economy, European multinationals should leverage the region’s formidable strengths to compete in an increasingly diverse but still intensively connected business environment.
March 31, 2021

The State of Globalization in 2021
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, Harvard Business Review
The latest data on trade, capital, information, and people flows show that global business is not going away, but the landscape is shifting, with important implications for strategy and management.
(Also available in Chinese (Traditional) (Simplified))
March 18, 2021

Will Covid-19 Have a Lasting Impact on Globalization?
Steven A. Altman, Harvard Business Review
The pandemic is causing the steepest decline in international flows in modern history. Leaders should focus on five key drivers of globalization's trajectory. 
(Also available in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese)
May 20, 2020

The Benefits of Globalization for North Korea's Economy and Negotiations with the U.S. (in Japanese)
Steven A. Altman and Caroline R. Bastian, Nihon Keizai Shimbun
North Korea has extremely limited involvement in globalization from trade and investment to information and people. Looking at this point, it is clear why negotiations have been elusive.
April 9, 2019

The State of Globalization in a Fragile World (in German)
Steven A. Altman, Delivering Tomorrow
Globalization has risen to the top of the political agenda in many parts of the world, but all too often, debates about connecting across borders have left us more divided within countries.
February 12, 2019

The State of Globalization in 2019, and What It Means for Strategists 
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, Harvard Business Review
To help business leaders navigate through—and even profit from—globalization’s turbulence, we offer recommendations for strategy (how to compete), presence (where to compete), architecture (how to organize), and non-market strategy (how to engage better with society).
(Also available in Arabic)
February 6, 2019 

Five Myths About Globalization 
Steven A. Altman, Washington Post
The political crossfire over globalization has propagated a raft of myths. Here are five of the most prevalent—and the straight facts to correct them.
January 25, 2019

Globalization in the Year 2038: Change and Continuity 
Steven A. Altman, Les Echos
International success 20 years from now will likely require even stronger competitive advantages than it does today and even greater sensitivity to the cultural, political, and other types of differences that will continue to divide countries. (Original, in French)
October 13, 2018 

Strategies for Higher Education in the Digital Age
Pankaj Ghemawat, California Management Review
This article analyzes online technology strategically from the perspective of traditional (face-to-face) providers of higher education. Analysis of current and projected relative positions explains why face-to-face providers need to take online technology seriously.
August 7, 2017

Globalization in the Age of Trump 
Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard Business Review
Today’s turmoil calls not for a mass retreat from globalization but for a more subtle reworking of multinationals’ strategies. This article examines common misperceptions about what is—and isn’t—changing about globalization and offers guidelines to help leaders decide where and how to compete in a complex world.  (Finalist for HBR McKinsey Award)
July–August Issue, 2017

(Anti)Globalization and Higher Education
Pankaj Ghemawat and Caroline R. Bastian, BizEd, published by AACSB International
Exaggerations about the globalization of higher education seem to have led to complacency. In today's turbulent climate, it's more crucial than ever for business schools to pursue and promote globalization in their programs.
July 3, 2017

Southeast Asia's Globalization Outperformers
Pankaj Ghemawat and Caroline R. Bastian, Nikkei Asian Review
While few observers would be surprised that Singapore is one of the world's most globalized countries, it may raise some eyebrows that the city-state's Southeast Asian neighbors Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia also stand out relative to what might be expected of them.
March 29, 2017

Figuring Out Which Companies and Industries Will be Most Damaged by Brexit 
Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard Business Review
In an op-ed, Professor Pankaj Ghemawat discusses Brexit's potential economic impact.
March 29, 2017

Globalization: Myth and Reality
Interview with Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard Business Review
Pankaj Ghemawat, professor at NYU Stern and IESE business schools, debunks common misconceptions about the current state and extent of globalization. (Hint: the world is not nearly as globalized as people think.)
February 24, 2017

Is America enriching the world at its own expense? That's globaloney.
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, Washington Post
The United States is far less buffeted by international trade, immigration and other aspects of globalization than many Americans assume; the whole world is far less globalized than people tend to believe. And policies rooted in overestimating globalization — “globaloney” — could harm the people they purport to protect.
February 3, 2017

Trump, Globalization, and Trade's Uncertain Future 
Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard Business Review
Donald Trump’s election to the presidency of the United States makes Brexit look like a hiccup. As Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, put it, the election of Trump is “Brexit times three.” This new reality will require businesses to rethink globalization, starting with the aspects Trump is most critical of.
November 11, 2016

The EU Needs to Make Sure Continental Countries Don't Exit 
Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard Business Review
The votes are in and the immediate reactions to Brexit have not been positive. Global stock markets promptly floundered. The British pound tanked. And HBO had to reassure viewers that production of Game of Thrones, some of which is shot in Northern Ireland, would not be interrupted.
June 28, 2016

People Are Angry About Globalization. Here's What to Do About It. 
Pankaj Ghemawat, Harvard Business Review
The U.S. is in the midst of a presidential campaign in which both candidates have adopted antitrade stances and one has taken a frankly xenophobic, isolationist stance. The UK has voted to leave the European Union. Much of continental Europe is convulsed with similar combinations of disaffection, protectionism, and, in some cases, nationalism and even racism that have morphed into a more-or-less generalized anger against globalization.
November 4, 2016

Emerging Economies: Differences and Distances 
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, AIB Insights
Despite the recent emerging market slowdown, the IMF still projects emerging economies to deliver 72% of global growth from 2015 to 2020. In this short article, the obvious differences between emerging and advanced economies are discussed to present a more holistic characterization of these important—but often misunderstood—parts of the world. 
Vol. 16, No. 4, January 2016

Beyond Brexit: An Initial Analysis and Questions for the AIB Community 
Pankaj Ghemawat, AIB Insights
The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union the week before the 2016 AIB Annual Meeting. It occurred to me that it would be a shame if the meetings afforded no opportunity to discuss one of the most shocking international policy developments of the last few years—or decades. 
Vol. 16, No. 3, 2016

How Global Are the World’s Largest Contractors?
Pankaj Ghemawat and Caroline R. Bastian, ENR Engineering News-Record
The ENR Top 250 International Contractors survey provides an annual snapshot of the cross-border activities of the world’s largest contractors. We take a longer perspective, using data from the 2005-15 surveys to analyze the globalization of the world's largest contractors.
December 3, 2015

How Globally Connected is S'pore?
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, The Business Times
Correcting misperceptions about the depth of globalization is important, because greater depth is associated with faster economic growth.
October 29, 2015

Tsipras and Putin: Does Greece Have a Russia Option
Pankaj Ghemawat and Caroline R. Bastian, The Globalist
Some analysts have put forward the scenario that Greece will be abandoned by the European Union and fall into the mouth of Russia, but getting closer to Moscow runs counter to Greece's economic interests.
July 30, 2015

How Global is Your C-Suite
Pankaj Ghemawat and Herman Vantrappen, MIT Sloan Management Review
Despite globalization, the vast majority of the world’s largest corporations are run by CEOs native to the country in which the company is headquartered. But more executive diversity at the top is sorely needed — and will require sweeping changes in how companies are organized.
Vol. 56, No. 4, Summer 2015

Making Sense of Globalization
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, Strategy+Business
The DHL Global Connectedness Index, now in its third edition, shows that not all flows of trade, capital, information, and people are alike.
Issue 78, Spring 2015/November 3, 2014

India's Globalization Imperative
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, Business Today
Few countries have more to gain from a greater integration with the rest of the world. Indeed, many fears about it within India seem exaggerated.
January 4, 2015

Globalization is back—but it looks different
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, CNBC
Is it the best of times or the worst of times for globalization? Some exult over hyperglobalization; others worry whether globalization is "over."
November 18, 2014

India Slips to 71 Rank in 2014's Global Connectedness Index
Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman, The Economic Times
Where does India really stand on globalisation? And even more importantly, where should India stand?
November 4, 2014