BookMarks #43: The World Is Flat

Title: The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty First Century

Author: Thomas Friedman

Genre: Non-Fiction, World Affairs, Economics

Setting: Early 21st Century

Published: 2005

BookMarks

The world is changing and changing fast. The most visible change is the increased connectivity making the world “flat”. And this is the theme of Thomas Friedman’s book. 

Friedman identifies his ten flatteners – the events which have reshaped the world. The fall of the Berlin Wall, launch of Netscape, Collaboration, Outsourcing, Insourcing, Supply-chaining, Open source architecture, the laying of the fibre-optic network etc. are some of the elements which have contributed in this flattening process. However, more than the individual factors, it is the convergence of all of them together, which really accelerated the flattening.

However, there are potential barriers to the flattening. It is not uniform across the world, and there are many societies resisting the change for their own reasons. The resistance can lead to conflict. The Americans may see the flatter world a threat to their job security. However, many are upskilling to make a better living for themselves in this fast changing world. To counter this conflict the author presents his “Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention” - No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell's, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain. That’s why Taiwan and China do not go to any war now!

However, there is a new threat of non-state actors which has emerged. One which announced its presence on the global scene with the destruction of the twin towers on 9/11. The book identifies radical Islam as the biggest danger to this flattening! And yet also concludes that the rise of Al-Qaeda was also a product of the same flattening process. In fact it compares Osama bin Laden’s operations with those of JetBlue! 

Although global in its coverage, the book is written mainly from an American perspective. What should Americans do survive and thrive in this increasingly VUCA world and where billions of Chinese, Indians, Russians, Mexicans and others are fast becoming their competition? Focusing on education and learning from others is what the author suggests. The book is filled with Friedman’s personal anecdotes from all over the world. 

However, reading it 10 years late, the book already feels dated at times. Shows how accelerated the process of convergence or flattening has been!

Previously on BookMarks – The War of the Worlds