Foreign Policy Magazine has run a ‘globalization index’ for the last few years. It is based on several measures: economic integration, technological connectivity, personal contact, and political engagement.
For the third year in a row, Ireland ranks as the most global nation in our survey, due to the country’s deep economic links and high levels of personal contact with the rest of the world. Western Europe claimed 6 out of the 10 most globally integrated countries in this year’s survey. And the United States broke into the top 10, ranking first in the number of secure servers and Internet hosts per capita. Countries from Central and Eastern Europe, Australasia, and Southeast Asia also made it into the upper tier. [Foreign Policy: Measuring Globalization: Economic Reversals, Forward Momentum]
They note a continuing slowdown in economic integration:
Last year’s index depicted a global economy stuck in reverse, with most key indicators of integration losing ground amid a world economic slowdown exacerbated by terrorist attacks. Measured as a whole, the economic links that bind countries together grew even weaker in 2002, reducing the gains from the late 1990s economic boom and–relative to the size of the global economy–settling below levels recorded in 1998. [Foreign Policy: Measuring Globalization: Economic Reversals, Forward Momentum]
They also look at a ‘cultural’ dimension:
While there are ample data to track the cross-border movement of people, merchandise, and money, it is extraordinarily difficult to measure the global spread of ideas and trends. However, it is possible to get a hint of a country’s level of cultural integration by identifying “cultural proxies”–the conduits by which ideas, beliefs, and values are transmitted. One way to measure the globalization of culture is to chart the movement of popular media, which have more impact on our thinking than some of the other, more frequently cited symbols of cultural globalization (such as the proliferation of Starbucks coffee shops around the world). [Foreign Policy: The Cultural Globalization Index]
Singapore, Switzerland and Ireland top this ‘cultural globalization’ index.
