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Globalization affects the economic health and political autonomy of every nation on the planet, but the consequences are much more severe for the countries that are not at the top of the global political and economic food chain. This is to say that the benefits of globalization are not spread evenly among the 200+ countries of the world.

Proponents of globalization often point to the economic growth that the expansion of transnational markets has produced. However, when one country or corporation expands its distribution into other countries, the industries of those nations must then compete not only among themselves, but with external players as well. If all countries and the industries within them operated on an equal status in terms of access to resources, capital, and ability to distribute products or services, then transnational markets would simply be places where all countries could compete against each other.

Why is this not the case? Not all national economies are at the same starting point. Global trade as we know it in the 21st century has roots in the Western empires of the last 500 years. Because these empires sought resources, both human and material, with which to enrich themselves, the infrastructure they set up around the world was not designed to improve economic or political health in the colonies, but rather to extract wealth. As a result, when colonies were able to throw out the imperial powers in the 19th and 20th centuries, their own economic infrastructures were still oriented toward the imperial power center. Trading agreements as well as transportation and communication systems were all more efficient in connecting imperial centers with the colonies than in allowing former colonies to develop autonomously and build trade and political arrangements with other nations.

Now, with free trade zones and the rise in power of the World Trade Organization (WTO), what seems to be an opening for smaller...