From internationally renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman comes a bold and inspiring picture of how the world has changed since the dawn of the millennium and the new era that awaits us. The beginning of the twenty-first century will be remembered, Friedman argues, not for military conflicts or political events, but for a whole new age of globalization a flattening of the world. The explosion of advanced technologies now means that suddenly knowledge-pools and resources have connected all over the planet, leveling the playing field as never before, so that each one of us is potentially an equal and competitor of the other. The world is wired so that Indian accountants or software engineers can now share an idea, team their skills or compete head-on for work with their US or European counterparts. Professionals everywhere, from China to Australia to Costa Rica, can work from home as if they were in offices next door to each other. The rules of the game have changed forever but does this death of distance , which requires us all to run faster in order to stay in the same place, mean the world has got too small and too flat too fast for us to adjust? Friedman brilliantly demystifies the exciting, often bewildering, global scene unfolding before our eyes, one which we sense but barely yet understand. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how this flattening of the world happened; what it will mean for countries, communities and individuals; and how governments and societies can - and must - adapt. The World is Flat is the most timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and its discontents, powerfully illuminated by a world-class writer.