Author: Lance E. Hoovestal

All economies arguably benefit from globalization. They have a common stakes in promoting it and in managing the challenges that it brings about. This is particularly true of the world’s largest economies, trading nations and ideological rivals: the United States and the People’s Republic of...

22 May, 2015 /

It is estimated that the entire world market would grind to a halt in a fortnight if containers stopped moving. And that is only half the story. The other half has to do with the fact that less than five percent of the contents of...

22 May, 2015 /

The container has transformed once-autonomous state borders into colanders rather than canopies. In this porous global environment where such non-state actors as international terrorists—who have little interest in preserving national sovereignty—can more easily achieve their ends thus increasing many times the diverse threats to sovereign...

22 May, 2015 /

So: the container has altered global commerce by becoming the core element in a system where the cost of moving goods (and the time it takes to do so) has been drastically and comprehensively reduced. In so doing, the container—both sea and air ones, but...

20 May, 2015 /

0 of the top ten busiest ports in the world 2 of the top 25 busiest ports in the world Containers moved—14.6 million 4 of the top 50 busiest ports in the world Containers moved—23.1 million Los Angeles— America’s busiest and world’s 19th busiest moved 7.87 million containers ...

19 April, 2015 /

7 of the top 10 busiest ports in the world Containers moved—140.41million 9 of the top 25 busiest ports in the world Containers moved—158.33 million 11 of the top 50 busiest ports in the world Containers moved—169.12 million Shanghai—China and the world’s busiest port moved 33.62 million containers   ...

19 April, 2015 /

The connectivity of the current age is of a fundamentally different order to what has gone before. Today, the speed of communications allows for information and services to be exchanged in the blink of an eye. At the same time, goods are able to traverse...

18 April, 2015 /

Because there are many approaches to and conceptions of globalization the origins of it are disputed. Some say it began in modern times. Others suggest that it is a phenomenon that started centuries ago. In The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman describes globalization as having...

26 March, 2015 /

Although most cargo moves over the ocean, various factors have fueled the swift expansion of air freight since World War II. For example, the postwar push to open global markets decreased the cost of air freight and increased its viability. By the mid- 1960s, the...

07 March, 2015 /

The advent of the container engendered many things.  One was rampant resistance.  Various attempts were made to thwart the spread of the container, or the “longshoreman’s coffin” as it was called. This is because in free-market terms, technological innovations like the container produce threats—particularly to workers...

27 February, 2015 /