Friedman addresses era of globalization
By Daily Bruin Staff
Jan. 18, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 EDWARD LIN/Daily Bruin Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist
Thomas L. Freidman speaks to students in Korn
Convocation Hall, Wednesday.
By Chris Goodmacher
Daily Bruin Contributor
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and National Book
Award winner Thomas Friedman spoke about globalization Wednesday at
UCLA.
“Globalization is not a trend, not a fad, not a Nintendo
game. It’s the international system that replaced the Cold
War system. Whether you like it, or you don’t like it, you
better understand it,” Friedman said. “And if you think
it’s all good or all bad, then you don’t understand
it.”
After a reception at The Anderson School at UCLA, Friedman,
sponsored by the Ronald W. Burke Center for International
Relations, delivered a lecture titled “The Impact of
Globalization on World Peace.”
This lecture is part of an annual series called the Arnold C.
Harberger Distinguished Lecture on Economic Development, which
invites a prominent speaker each year to lecture at The Anderson
School.
The event honors Harberger, who is the leading developmental
economist in the world, said Michael Intriligator, Director of the
BCIR.
Globalization resulted from increased communication through
technology and cooperative policies that have created the
tightly-knit, fast-paced world which exists today.
Drawing largely from his recent book, “The Lexus and the
Olive Tree,” Friedman spoke about the impact of globalization
on the world.
The title represents his observation that half the world,
represented by the Lexus, is pursuing wealth and technology. The
other half, represented by the olive tree, resists by holding onto
what has traditionally mattered to them.
“This (book) is the major introduction of globalization to
the world,” Intriligator said.
In today’s business world, globalization has entered
everyday vocabulary.
The increasing prominence of the concept of globalization is
shown by the fact that UCLA’s School of Public Policy and
Social Research launched its own Center for Globalization and
Policy Research last week.
“(Friedman) popularized the concept; he made people more
sensitive to it,” Intriligator said.
Friedman spoke about how he uses globalization as his
perspective through which he can view international relations in
his “Foreign Affairs” column in The New York Times.
“The Cold War was (the previous columnists’)
framework, and the Cold War ended in 1995 when I became the
columnist, so what was my framework?” Friedman asked.
“”˜The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ was my
framework.”
Before becoming the “Foreign Affairs” columnist,
Friedman served as the newspaper’s chief economic
correspondent in Washington, chief White House correspondent, and
chief diplomatic correspondent.
For his coverage of the Middle East, Friedman was awarded the
1988 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting from Israel and the
1993 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting from Lebanon.
In June 1989, he published “From Beirut to
Jerusalem” which was on The New York Times Bestseller List
for nearly a year and won the 1989 National Book Award for
non-fiction.
“Covering the Secretary of State (James) Baker in the
’90s gave me a front row seat to the Cold War, and covering
international finance and trade in the mid-90s gave me an intro to
globalization,” Friedman said.
Throughout the lecture, Friedman made several contrasts between
the Cold War era and the current globalization era.
“In the Cold War, the big question was: “˜How big is
your missile?'” Friedman said. “In globalization,
the big question is: “˜How fast is your
modem?'”
To write about this new era, Friedman cited his experiences
traveling all over the world as giving him the perspective to write
his book.
“I went out to the world; I report it. Academics complain
I don’t have footnotes in my book. Well I don’t because
this is what I did, I connected the dots from my reporting,”
Friedman said.
Citing President-elect George W. Bush’s lack of travels
abroad, Friedman said that he “strikes me as a deeply
uncurious person.”
Something Friedman was concerned about was the speed of
technology and “the virus of over-connectedness.”
“The Internet changes to the Ethernet, which is when
you’re always online. This is not an age I welcome,”
Friedman said.
Toward the end of his lecture, Friedman addressed questions that
he received most frequently from people, including, “What can
I do for my children in this era of globalization?”
“I believe the surgeon general should put a warning label
on every modem, “˜Judgment not included,'”
Friedman said. “We have to build internal software into our
children so they can act without a supervisor.”
The floor was opened up for a Q&A session, which included a
question about what the U.S. could do to maintain its power in the
globalized world.
“(The U.S. should) double the foreign aid budget as an
incentive for people who will build institutions that will expand
globalization,” Friedman said.
