Engineering globalization: oxymoron or opportunity?

Globalization can have a purely descriptive meaning, one that simply recognizes the facts of the increasing interdependence of national economies, the diffusion of technology and technological activity across international borders, and the intersection and integration of cultures. Taken in a normative sense, globalization, in addition to being a description of reality, can also turn out to be a prescription for a preferred reality. Engineering programs should take a much broader view of their responsibilities than the narrow instrumental objective of providing employees for the industries of advanced technological societies.