What is new about globalization in its present form? Anything?

One early observer of the phenomenon of globalisation wrote: In place of the old local and national seclusion and self sufficiency we have exchanges in every direction, leading to the universal interdependence of nations. The year was 1848 and the writer was Karl Marx. We all know that globalisation as a force for change is not new. However, in the last few years, as it has gathered speed and reached to the most distant corners of the earth, we can feel its impact. The purpose of this essay is to investigate the concept of internationalism in its shifting cultural and political contexts and to consequently ask what globalisation means in a series of particular…(short extract)