TITLE:
Globalization or Fragmentation of the World Economy?
AUTHORS:
Alexandru Trifu
KEYWORDS:
Globalization, Fragmentation, World Economy, Imbalance, Cleavage, Win-Win
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.14 No.3,
May
29,
2026
ABSTRACT: Understanding the current world economy involves both tangible aspects, such as exchanges of goods, services, and labor, and intangible aspects, such as financial flows, technologies, and information, approached from multiple complementary theoretical perspectives. Economic development is a multidimensional concept that involves moving from a simple quantitative increase to a complex improvement in the economic and social parameters of a country or region. The world economy is not static, but is undergoing a continuous structural transformation, driven by technological and demographic developments and shifts in the balance of economic power. The 21st century has already brought major structural changes and is expected to bring more as new factors make their influence felt. One transformation has been the shift of the economic center of gravity towards Asia and the emerging economies. The impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also considered from the perspective of global power centers. While it is not the primary focus of this paper to provide an exhaustive technical analysis, we highlight the significant global debate regarding its implementation. AI is increasingly viewed as a catalyst for economic fragmentation; as it becomes central to global growth, geopolitical divisions in this field become systemically costly and may lead to new regulatory divergencies. As a quite fresh example is the war in Middle East (Gulf Zone), with immediate influence on economies and people. The losses occurred as financial markets around the world continue to watch for cues from oil prices. Sharp rises have raised concerns that a prolonged rise could hurt the global economy, sap households’ ability to spend and push interest rates higher. We tried to synthesize our own conviction regarding the snapshot of today’s economic situation, which is an obvious one in fragmentation in blocs, altogether with a cleavage in Economics. Also, it is needed to rethink the economic powers’ role, and the necessity of win-win game for the sustainability of the world economic construction and functioning.