Globalization Reconsidered: Foreign Direct Investment and Global Governance

The paper focuses on the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) that has received little attention in the debate and criticism of globalization. The empirical evidence indicates that Direct Investment is concentrated in a few countries, confirming a selective integration of certain areas into the world economy. It highlights also the importance of the Trans-Atlantic connection, with Europe as the larger source of direct investment and the US shifting to the role of major recipient after the mid-1990s. FDI highlights also the distinction that needs to be made with capital mobility and financial flows. The debate on globalization mostly eluded these issues, which calls into question the capacity of discussing the question of global governance.