Survival of the flattest.

The World is Flat By Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Staus and Giroux US$27.50

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's newest book is subtitled, 'A short history of the 21st century;' Very short. Our new century is still a toddler by any measure.

But for Friedman, whose previous work on the subject of globalization was 1999'S The Lexus and the Olive Tree, the theme of the next 100 years is already set for the world's countries, citizens and even individuals:

In his view, the ever-shrinking world is central to our lives.

As he describes it, a world guided by transnational capitalism is best captured by the statement of a high-tech executive in Bangalore: "The playing field has been leveled." New communication technology and corporate strategizing has eliminated many of the obstacles between countries and companies, unifying the planet around a single economic and trade platform. It's not just capital that moves freely these days, but information and knowledge as well.

Competition, too, has gone global. In Friedman's flat world, economic stability is a thing of the past. Weak companies get left behind or disappear, and only the most daring and flexible business minds will succeed.

In the United States, according to the author, the trend toward outsourcing of manufacturing and services will increase. Certain activities like telemarketing, accounting, computer programming and research and development will be done in foreign, although English-speaking, countries, while China will for the foreseeable future remain the developed world's factory floor.

The manufacturing explosion in China, which appears to be wiping out Latin America's assembly plants, and the rise of India as an information technology giant, has created middle-class growth in these countries. Previously, the Asian giants had no discernable professional and business class, at least none to speak of. Yet today these executives are busy transforming their respective countries at an accelerating rate, while at the same time playing a key role in the future direction of globalization as a whole.

Faced with a strengthening Far East, Friedman soon hits upon a common question for many: Are we all going to end up unemployed? Nevertheless, he agrees with the outsourcing movement and with the decisions made by the world's multinational companies, the main drivers of the new international economic order. Like them, he sees in it something both desirable and unstoppable. U.S. workers should get ready for the changes, he writes, by leading high-technology industries and by increasing specialization. India, for instance, annually produces an enormous number of accountants who could dedicate themselves to the tiresome task of preparing individual U.S. tax returns, while their counterparts in the United States focus on better-paid, more complex work, such as private banking.

Calamity. Friedman is not such a globalization fanatic as to preach that an exodus of jobs and borderless competition in the new flat world means everyone wins. Although a bonanza for many, it will visit calamity on others. Friedman explains with his signature clarity the effect globalization already has had on countries, cities, individuals and businesses, and offers ways in which governments and societies can adapt.

He does note, too, the shockingly sinister side of the free flow of information. The freeing up of data works to the benefit of the talented in the Third World, but it also has led to the globalization of terrorism. The universality of communication, according to Friedman, has also given new life to Muslim identity and solidarity while strengthening the al-Qaeda terror network Yet he remains enthusiastic, arguing that it is a sign of our times that countries are more united than ever before, in a postmodern era where the state has given up its central role to international competition.

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