Explain economic globalization's growth since the late twentieth century, including international institutions and technology, and evaluate its benefits and tensions.
After the Cold War ended, economic globalization accelerated rapidly: international trade expanded, multinational corporations operated across dozens of countries at once, and institutions like the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the European Union worked to coordinate economic policy and reduce trade barriers across borders. Container shipping and complex supply chains made it entirely routine for a single product -- a smartphone, a pair of shoes, a car -- to be designed in one country, have its components manufactured in several others, and be assembled in yet another before reaching a store shelf anywhere in the world.
Technology accelerated this connection further: the internet and modern telecommunications now let information, money, and ideas move across the globe nearly instantly, at a scale and speed no previous generation could have imagined. Globalization's effects are genuinely debated rather than settled: supporters point to real economic growth and significant poverty reduction in many regions, along with unprecedented cultural exchange, while critics point to job losses in wealthier countries as manufacturing shifts elsewhere, concerns about cultural homogenization, unevenly distributed benefits between and within countries, and the environmental costs of constant global shipping and production. A fair historian presents both sides of this ongoing argument rather than declaring a final verdict.
Mastery looks like: They can name at least two international institutions, trace a product's global supply chain as evidence, and state both a genuine benefit and a genuine criticism of globalization.
Common stumbles: Presenting globalization as either an unqualified triumph or an unqualified disaster, instead of evenhandedly weighing its real, documented benefits and costs.