I’m glad that I have finished reading the comprehensive book on globalism, called The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman, a foreign affairs columnist at the New York Times.

In the first part of the book, Friedman describes the sudden changes around the world caused by globalism, and tells that the world has gone flat without him noticing. Furthermore, he explains the way businesses operate in this new world, which he calls flat. The book is enriched by many examples of outsourcing, offshoring, supply-chaining, insourcing etc. from companies that operate on a global scale. He describes his visits to various companies around the world, and shares the views of executive officers of such companies.

This book is especially interesting for people interested in computers, internet and technology because as it turns out, they play a very important role in the flat world. Just before reading this book, I had read a special report on supply-chaining in The Economist. I have been hearing all these names before, but wasn’t really familiar with them. In that sense, the book was very enlightening for me. It also made me happy to find out that there are other interesting things in the world other than computers :)

In the second part of the book, which I have found less interesting, Friedman analyzes the implications of the flat world for America, developing countries and companies. Towards the end of the book, the chapters become more disconnected, which I believe is due to them being added or updated in this new edition.

So, you might ask what’s in it for us? Well, at the end of the book, Friedman talks about the perils of Islam embedded pluralistic democratic society as opposed to an Islam embedded authoritarian society. He presents Turkey as a positive example, and also mentions Istanbul as one of the most open, tolerant cities in the Muslim world due to the fact that it is a trade center.

Since the book is 560 pages long, there are too many interesting ideas to mention here, but I can assure you that it is a valuable read.