I wonder how many of you who watched the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics were struck, as I was, by how it is simultaneously the most global of events and yet the most nationally chauvinistic. Unlike the world that most of us live in, where intercultural cooperation is the pursuit and the prize, the Olympics emphasize competition between cultures and nations. The great irony, of course, is that globalization has taken the edge away from many national advantages that competing countries used to have. There are now many athletes and coaches playing and working across national lines. For example, the seismic shift from Russia to North America in awards for ice dancing (Canada taking gold and US taking silver) was aided by a pair of Russian émigré coaches. Many of the biathlon medalists are from France, Germany and Russia, despite the event’s obscure origins in the Norwegian military. The US team also made it to the podium for the first time in 86 years by winning a silver medal in the Nordic combined event, thanks to a new mixture of experts devoted to the sport. All of this provides additional testimony to the power of globalization and its continuous impact. Let us know your thoughts.

-Mike Schell