Conclusion

Proponents of the ‘strong globalisation’ thesis, typified by Kenichi Ohmae, suggest that there is a coherent and irresistible logic of globalisation (Ohmae, The borderless world: Power and strategy in the interlinked economy. London: Collins,1990). For Ohmae, globalisation is dominated by a core ‘triad’ of economic regions: North America, Western Europe and North East Asia, predominantly Japan, which share the bulk of international trade. However, in an interconnected world where the difference between core and periphery is not necessarily one of distance but one that involves both connectivity and engagement, the challenges to this emerging world order reflect tensions at international, national and subnational levels ranging from contestation over resources, both material and human, to the rejection of the logic of late capitalism by the alienated and dispossessed.