In the new year, the world will have to grapple with daunting political and economic challenges that surfaced toward the end of the 20th century. The terror attacks in the United States on Sept. 11 -- which The Economist called the "the day the world changed" -- complicated the problems.
There are two major questions. One is how to restructure the framework and rules for global security against the background of overwhelming U.S. military power; the other is how to fine-tune the moves toward globalization, which have caused wide-ranging economic dislocations. While market reforms, the information-technology revolution and advances in high technology bring benefits and efficiency to countries capable of taking advantage of them, they also tend to expand economic gaps among nations, regions and ethnic groups.
Globalization means the global spread of market-economy principles. It involves problems based on climate, history, national traits, economic systems and differences in the development of industrial structures. These problems, subjects of comparative studies of systems, must be considered in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary manner.