Can the world avoid a fresh crisis? by Ian Bremmer

For better and for worse, globalization -- all the various processes by which ideas, information, people, money, goods, and services now cross international borders at unprecedented speed -- has been the primary geopolitical and economic trend of the past several decades. But the financial crisis and its aftermath have proven that no one has forgotten how walls are built, and this moment is in many ways more dangerous for the global economy's future than anything we experienced during the Cold War, threats of nuclear war notwithstanding. That's because of globalization's very success up until now; this level of global economic interdependence did not exist when the planet was divided into opposing ideological camps. A bad day over there is still a bad day over there. But now it's a bad day over here, too.

Ian Bremmer, Foreign Policy, December 2010