For decades the term globalization has been implanted in the collective culture as the unavoidable trend that would lead us to the inevitable future, one where the global village would break down material and communication barriers, the world would be placed within reach and at the service of progress, baptized under this new concept that told us: the local is no longer
enough.
Globalization was gaining momentum as market deregulation, the formation of economic blocs, trade agreements and of course, technological advances, all these factors combined generated an explosion of international trade activity, material barriers succumbed to communication almost without obstacles, the promise of globalization presented a search scenario for business, the new gold rush was to find that corner of the world that would help them increase their competitiveness by reducing costs or increasing value added, Offshoring was the title of its business card.
No matter how complex an operation sounded (thinking in terms of local logistics), if it generated a competitive advantage, it added to the globalist trend, companies opted to package their products in countries located across the ocean, prior to their shipment for sale in places located less than a quarter of a mile away, globalization made this possible, even if it escaped the simple logic.
Despite its rampant growth, this socio-economic trend had to overcome some obstacles that made it tighten the screws or slow down its pace a bit; anti-globalists and financial crises (especially the one in 2008), did not prevent the globalizing machine to continue with the same engine it used since it was born, and so; China became the factory of the world, Hollywood was without competition the icon of world culture, Latin flavor and K-pop culture flooded almost all musical coasts, even from globalization came the promise of fighting and counteracting climate change through sustainability and social responsibility.
But time and its even more inevitable action had a surprise for globalization and, like any empire that expands to the limit of its capacities, the globalizing machine showed signs of being out of maintenance from its entrails, when Donald Trump "officially" declared the inauguration of a new era of national entrenchment and protectionism, under the slogan of "Make America Great Again", the aim was to counteract the long-term effects of Offshoring on the American economy and to counteract the global cultural amalgamation with the "American way of life", an exacerbated patriotism was raised, but the drop, or rather the drops that overflowed the glass, were those that unleashed a pandemic at levels not seen for more than a hundred years in this blue globe.
Although it may seem contradictory, COVID-19 only came to reaffirm what globalization told us decades ago: the local is no longer enough, pushed by the advance and dependence on technology, the global social village found a place to function and resist attacks: the Internet. However, on the economic side, the global machine is beginning to change the piston models, a mixed one that allows it to withstand the current global situations that undermine competitiveness: pandemics, environmental care, climate conditions, protectionism, etc.
We are facing a restructuring of global manufacturing, one located a quarter of a mile away from where everything or almost everything was done, with these new paradigms, the new gold rush will focus on finding everything that globalization offered years ago, as close as possible.
Although it would seem that everything is going back to where we came from, the truth is that we are closer to having new trade agreements or broader economic blocs than to seeing the
The current broken or dissolved globalization, as they carry the slogan of finding stumbling blocks to the material barriers that seem to be re-emerging once again.
Derived from this, the future of globalization seems to be at risk, but rather than an end, this has more similarity to a stage of metamorphosis, one from which some kind of "Neo Globalization" may emerge, where some things will return to the local delimited in the material, be it from geography to physical barriers built on the basis of ideologies, and where others will continue to proliferate on a global scale, regardless of the corner of the physical world from which they emerge, for globalization, which was born and grew in the virtual world, embraced the globe and the globe embraced it.
