Friedman, Thomas and Robert Kaplan. "Debate: States of Discord". Foreign Policy, 13 November 2009.

Friedman, Thomas and Robert Kaplan. "Debate: States of Discord". Foreign Policy, 13 November 2009.

• This article in Foreign Policy is a published epistolary debate between Drs. Thomas Friedman and Robert Kaplan, two influential scholars in debates about globalization. 
• Dr. Friedman defines 'globalization' as the integration of all systems with other systems, especially the increase in connections between markets, technology, and finance which make effects less dependent on distance.
• Dr. Friedman asserts that the process of globalization is almost entirely driven by advances in technology. The greater ability of technology to cross barriers and distances means that, unless something tries to stop the process, globalization will occur because there is not anything preventing it from occurring.
• Some figures have claimed that a major terror attack or a severe financial crisis precipitated by the interconnected systems created by globalization will cause governments to stop this connection, but technology cannot be reversed and neither can the systems of globalization.
• Dr. Kaplan gives another metaphor for globalization, a system in which everything affects everything else. His historical reference point is the early Han Dynasty, when order holds within an interconnected system, but no actual power of governance exists outside of states.
• The international system currently faces many threats of instability that the global order cannot cope with, including the possibility of nature disaster in a densely populated area, resource scarcity, and a youth bulge in poor, violent countries.
• Dr. Friedman argues that the state is still essential in the process of globalization, particularly because different societies, populations and regions are affected by globalization in different ways. The positive or negative effects of globalization are mediated by national conditions, and simple conditions like literacy and rule of law will achieve positive effects.
• Although technology allows for globalization to occur, the experiences of globalization and its effects are mediated by government institutions. Corruption hinders the effects of globalization, while good institutions make for good experiences from globalization.
• Dr. Friedman emphasizes democracy and rule of law as the biggest factors in producing 'good' results from globalization. As case studies he provides East Asia and Egypt, which started with the same per capita GDP in 1953, but diverged because East Asia created good institutions for global affairs, whereas Egypt prioritized anti-imperialist conflict over development.
• Although changes and reform produce good results in the long-term, the population movements and industrial development happen in the Third World will lead to revolution before it leads to democracy. The instability caused by changes in the system will be violent for 20 to 30 years before stable development arrives.
• Some states face instability for other reasons, including the artificiality of the state construction. Dr. Kaplan looks at North Africa as an example, arguing that instability in Libya and Algeria stems from the artificiality of the state there, as opposed to 'authentic' states in Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.
• The emerging super-state structure in Europe is another example of states heading towards different kinds of artificiality. Either the nation-state in Europe will weaken and no longer attract support or the EU will be so bureaucratic and despotic that it will be rejected amidst a nationalist backlash.
• Some figures have raised concerns that globalization and the cultural exchanges therein will erase or denigrate some cultures through homogenization, or -- due to its massive cultural influence -- Americanization.
• Dr. Friedman says that right now in the process of globalization is too early to predict whether cultures will be homogenized, but that the continuation of regional cultures in America brings hope that cultures can survive in conditions of similar media and government.
• Cultural changes have been caused by the trend of urbanization within the globalization process, and Dr. Kaplan claims that the intensification of religious practices has been the primary change. In order to adjust to urban conditions, increasingly strict morality is needed to prevent crime and violence.
• As a force globalization can increase or threaten democracy, depending on the strength of proponent for both ideologies. The spread of democratic liberties and free-market capitalism in China is the biggest change resulting from this aspect of globalization.
• The international community has done a poor job defining democracy, focusing on the presence of democratic institutions and elections rather than freedoms or human rights, regardless of the institutions supporting them.
• Democratic elections require some societal basis and level of education to achieve freedom and liberal results, which some countries have and some countries do not. Dr. Kaplan notes that Tunisia is a mostly open society than would do well under democracy, whereas an election in Egypt would only reproduce despotism.