In an effort to better understand the effects of globalization, scholars approach the study of globalization from both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches (Cummings, et al., 2010). The study of globalization gained momentum in the 1990’s and is now a major course of study at many academic institutions. Globalization is studied by historians, anthropologists, …show more content…
The negative attribute of globalization is the fact that for every global action there is also a local action. There is always a winner and a loser with capitalism in conjunction with globalization. Although many nations or global citizens may benefit from globalization and trade agreements through the availability of certain products and/or increased wealth, there is always going to be a loser on the local or regional level due to the affects of the exploitation of their natural resources that are used to manufacture products …show more content…
Globalization or free trade can be traced back to the Bretton Woods Conference, which took place during the final months of World War II (Cummings, et al., 2010). The Bretton Woods Conference consisted of representatives from 44 countries and was held to establish procedures to rebuild and regulate the post World War II economy (Cummings, et al., 2010). John Maynard Keynes and Henry Dexter White believed that the lack of a high degree of international economic collaboration among leading nations would lead to instability and economic warfare, which in turn would lead to military warfare. The representatives from the leading countries agreed that an open international economic system needed to be developed. The Bretton Woods conference was responsible for the formation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), now known as the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was established in 1995 and defined all currencies in relation to the U.S. dollar (Cummings, et al., 2010). The Bretton Woods policies remained in place until the 1980’s when neoliberalism was embraced by Ronald Reagan and Margaret