This textbook deals with the progressive global dissolution of political, economic, and social boundaries, which has significant implications for labor markets, the international division of labor, social security, and income distribution. Politically, it is eroding the sovereign ability of nation-states to shape their own affairs; socially, it conjures up the specter of an increasingly global culture of unity. Against the background of the empirical effects of globalization processes in a number of areas, the book discusses to what extent these fears are justified, whether they cannot also be explained by other developments, and whether the benefits of globalization justify the costs and risks resulting from it.