There is a strong sense that the economic, cultural and political landscape is becoming more deeply integrated and interdependent. Nonetheless, the metrics and data collection frameworks for measuring the patterns and structures that are taking shape are still in development and being tested. Today, there is no consensus as to how globalization should be measured, let alone how pervasive the process is. Different schools attest to different views whether globalization has already rendered the world flat in terms of information, people and capital flow. Certain data points show that cross-border differences and locality play a more significant role than most of us would guesstimate:

• International calls, including internet telephony lingers at only 6%;
• The population of first generation immigrants still doesn’t exceed 3%;
• Direct cross-border investments peaked at 9% in 2012;
• The export/GDP ratio is at 30%; however, accounting for multiple counting of relations the number is likely around only 20%

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