The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization

Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.

Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.

No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler

Product Description
From one of our most perceptive commentators and winner of the National Book Award, a comprehensive look at the new world of globalization, the international system that, more than anything else, is shaping world affairs today.

As the Foreign Affairs columnist for The New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has traveled the globe, interviewing people from all walks of contemporary life: Brazilian peasants in the Amazon rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Teheran, and the financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley.

Now Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original look at globalization. Globalization, he argues, is not just a phenomenon and not just a passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system; the new, well-greased, interconnected system: Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some degreee, a global village. Simply put, one can't possibly understand the morning news or one's own investments without some grasp of the system. Just one example: During the Cold War, we reached for the hot line between the White House and the Kremlin--a symbol that we were all divided but at least the two superpowers were in charge. In the era of globalization, we reach for the Internet--a symbol that we are all connected but nobody is totally in charge.

With vivid stories and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman offers readers remarkable access to his unique understanding of this new world order, and shows us how to see this new system. He dramatizes the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree"--the tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all need to do to keep the system in balance. Finding the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of he globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative book--essential reading for all who care about how the world really works.

Friedman asserts that either human beings manage the system or it will manage them. The choice is theirs. Are there strategies and guidelines for such management? Yes. Are the separate cultures of the Lexus and olive tree necessarily mutually exclusive? No. Friedman concludes his brilliant analysis as follows: "A healthy global society is one which can balance the Lexus and the olive tree all the time., and there is no better model for this on earth today than America. And that's why I believe so strongly that for globalization to be sustainable America must be at its best -- today, tomorrow, all the time. It not only can be, it must be, a beacon for the whole world. Let us not squander this precious legacy." In remarks such as these, Friedman clearly reveals the passion of his convictions.


Brilliant overview of globalisation. Essential reading   December 8, 1999
Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia)
47 out of 55 found this review helpful

A very wide ranging book written by an experienced journalist about the dilemmas created as globalisation transforms the world around our local communities and cultures. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting as bureau chief in Beirut, and it is this background from which the analogy of the olive tree comes. He explains how his career has enabled him to slowly come to see the many different dimensions of globalisation, how they link, and what we can do about it. It is a very systemic perspective. (Thurow, Lester: Building Wealth is complementary to it. Korten, David: When Corporations Rule the World provides a 1995 counterblast. Any of the books and pamphlets by Robert Theobald and also Harman, W.: Global Mind Change provide creative ideas on how globalisation can be redirected to achieve societal ans well as economic ends.)

The book is in four parts.

Part one explains how to look at the system we call globalisation and how it works.

Part two is a discussion of how nation-states, communities, individuals and the environment interact with the system.

Part three is a good look at the backlash.

Part four is an even better look at the unique role of the USA in this new world.

To understand and convey the complexity of what is going on, Friedman believes that he had to learn to combine six dimensions or perspectives in different ways and weights to understand the systemic interrelationships at play and then tell stories in order to explain it. This is what he does in the book. He also identifies what he believes to be the key driving forces to globalisation and the conditions necessary for a society to succeed in a globalised world.

As an analysis of the multiple forces at play and their interaction, The Lexus and the Olive Tree could hardly be bettered, and the comment that we know about as much about the globalised world that is emerging as we did about the Cold War world in 1946 really resonates.

I am less satisfied with Friedman's prescription, which is essentially that rape is inevitable - and may be pleasurable - so we may as well relax and enjoy it. That both under-rates the very real dangers posed by a large group of potential losers and, more important, absolves us from the need to search creatively for a third way that places more emphasis on the human spirit and sustainability and less on money as such.

It is notable how much of the business literature is beginning to focus on ethics, spiritual values and moral and ethical obligations. It is also notable how rapidly the various movements to reshape the world around more fundamentally human values are building strength. The balance is not just, as Friedman seems to suggest, between globalised progress and separatist stagnation, but other options need creative development, based on wider values than those that motivate the 'electronic herd'.

The conspiracy theorists claim that global business is consciously trying to promote the 'inevitability' of a system that happens to suit them very well. They would probably claim that Friedman has fallen into their trap. Whatever the truth or otherwise of a 'conspiracy', I am left with Russell Ackoff's phrase ringing in my head - 'If we don't work to get the future we want, we will have to learn to live with the future we get.'

Recognising the strength of the forces that Friedman describes so well, that is perhaps the issue. Are we clear about what kind of world we want and are we prepared to work for it?


Tom Friedman was born to write   June 6, 2000
Todd Weiner (Gambier, OH)
68 out of 109 found this review helpful

Like his first book, "From Beirut to Jerusalem," Tom Friedman displays a mastery over his subject like few authors. He is such an articulate apostle for globalization because he has lived it and breathed it for years as a foreign affairs columnist. His book is crammed with witty anecdotes that enable the reader to understand and appreciate the profound changes in our world economy. In his introduction, Mr. Friedman says that he is not an advocate of globalization, per se. Rather, he accepts its seeming inevitability. I am sure Mr. Friedman believes that his intent is neutral, but the balance of his book's information is favorable toward globalization. This should not be surprising because, in sum, globalization is a positive world development. The author, however, waxes sentimental when he warns that globalization may turn us into spiritless "machines." Mr. Friedman shouldn't worry. In fact, capitalism and democracy are revolutionary systems precisely because they enable people to possess free will and choice. With the rise of globalization, people all over the world can choose their own "olive trees" - their communities, their religious beliefs, etc. - while enjoying a higher standard of living. It is no coincidence that the United States - the arsenal of both democracy and capitalism - is the world's most religious industrial society. It is not only a diverse faith - Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims - but an active faith - one where people make God an active part of their lives rather a distant character. Our real "olive trees" will be enhanced, not suppressed, by freedom. I should also add that I disagree with the author concerning the process's inevitability. Nothing in life is guaranteed. In the late 1960s, America stunted the engine of our economic growth with welfare and crippled the principle of equality before the law with affirmative action. These policies were designed to create a more "compassionate" society. Rather, they only deepened the problems of poverty and created needless friction between the races. In the next decade, America will face a similar choice: Will we abandon the secret of our success out of misguided guilt? Will our sympathy for the poor delude us into destroying the only opportunity for their advancement? The recent protests in Seattle and Washington should give us pause. Hopefully, they'll read Tom Friedman's book and adopt a fresh, more informed, perspective.


McDonald's Theory of Conflict Avoidance and More   June 10, 2002
Stacey M Jones (Conway, Ark.)
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

I've been a fan of Thomas Friedman's New York Times foreign affairs column since September 11, when I found his voice about the Arab world and how it relates to this tragedy and our daily lives here in the United States. This book created a helpful foundation for understanding our changing planet.

The premise on which he bases the book is that there is a conflict in our world between olive trees, which represent our cultural heritage and identity, our spirituality and our rituals, and the Lexus, which is manufactured in technologically advanced factories for people who have cashed in on the globalized American capitalist system and can afford the amenities, and can buy them in increasing outlets worldwide.

Friedman makes a convincing case that this current era of Globalization (he suggests that an earlier era in the late 19th and ealier 20th centuries incited the backlashes that we call today Communism, Socialism and Facism) has replaced the former world order created by the Cold War. Then, everything was bipolar, and nations aligned themselves and propped themselves up
politically and financially with their alliances to either the Soviet Union or the United States. Now, Friedman states, there is only globalization, or global capitalism, and if your nation isn't plugged into it, your people will suffer.

Sometimes the full-bore theme of this book feels heavy, that there is no alternative to market capitalism worldwide seems a little biased, to me. But, Friedman, thankfully, doesn't only concentrate on this, but gives thought, particularly at the end of the book, to the public policies that nations can initiate to protect their olive trees, while not turning their backs on the Lexus.

He has some interesting theories, too, that I enjoyed reading about, particularly the idea that no country with a McDonald's franchise has ever attacked another country with a McDonald's franchise. (His first edition came out before NATO v Yugoslavia, but he still stands by it, as NATO isn't a nation...) His
idea here is that market capitalism can be a stabilizing force in the world because once people have a big enough middle class to support franchises like McDonald's they are hard pressed to risk their lifestyles for war.

I found this edition, which came out in 2000 to be somewhat painful, as his passages about what he calls "super-empowered individuals," who don't need to be in control of a country or its military to attack other nations or groups, somewhat vaguely but eerily predicted the September 11 plot. His position that the
increasing democratization of finance/capital, information and technology can improve life and destabilize it too are convincing, especially in what we've seen happen since the book was published.

The book, written in a pleasant, colloquial style with a lot of well-known examples is engaging and easy to read. I strongly recommend it.


Wise and Witty   July 16, 2000
Allen Smalling (Chicago, IL United States)
11 out of 18 found this review helpful

The impossibility of restricting information in the Internet age, the impracticality of slowing down innovation in the computer age, and the futility of forbidding foreign investment in the international-banking age are the main themes that run through this wise and witty study of globalization and its consequences for our increasingly fast-paced, increasingly smaller planet.

Journalist Thomas L. Friedman's "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" uses a host of metaphors to housebreak international business, finance, culture, technology and the environment for his readers. Flows of capital are controlled by an "Electronic Herd" of investors who flow into lucrative markets (and slosh out just as quickly if they sense trouble, as several southeast Asian countries found to their chagrin in the 1990s). Friedman opines that a country has to have an advanced "operating system" (a predilection to capitalism) to increase its standard of living. The USA and Britian are at the top, followed closely by France and Germany. Korea is just below. These societies can put on the "Golden Straitjacket" of capitalist restraint and watch their economies zoom. But not, say, Russia. They've spend too long under a system by which the success of a bedframe factory is not profit, consumer satisfaction, quality or good shipped but amount of steel consumed, the most absurd, downside-up measure of success possible.

But any society--even one as free-market oriented as the USA's--can't leave tradition behind in the dust. Hence the tension between the "Lexus" (high-tech innovation) and the "olive tree" (tradition, pride, tribalism). Note well the current opposition to the WTO.

Our go-go technological climate even finds living application in this very book. In between the hardcover issue of "The Lexus and the Olive Tree" (1999) and the new paperback (spring 2000), computer maker Compaq lost its innovative edge to upstart Dell--Friedman explains why in the paperback.

This is fun, lively reading. It gives wonk subject matter like business & finance a good name. The amount of research is astonishing, most of it collected on-site, and surely generated enough frequent-flier mileage to get the author a free trip to Mars when the time comes. Friedman is a bit of a true believer--he is SURE that the American way is the right way--but he offers good arguments for his opinions. Time spend on this book will be time well spent.