Hard on the heels of putting the Cold War bogeyman to rest, economic globalization has loomed, at least for some, as the world system's next crisis carrier. Globalization creates winners and losers and tramples on the distinctiveness of local cultures and sovereignties. There is an assumption that if the market does its job, the poor will catch up to the rich via trade-driven growth and that in the global North and South - developed and less developed countries - cleavages will disintegrate and the world will be a better and Pareto-optimal, happier place.Accepting the existence of economic globalization processes, this book explores whether it is truly a 'global' process. It examines how globalization is experienced around the world and compares its intensity and impact in industrialized countries, and developing countries. Using a world systems approach and developing a theoretical analysis that builds on the leadership long-cycle approach to global international political economy, this book examines the issues of global inequality. The authors focus on the issues of economic growth, technological diffusion, debt, North-South conflict, democratisation and globalization, and demonstrate how and why the cleavages that have characterized the global North and South in the past and present are growing more acute. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of international political economy, globalisation, international trade and development.