International activities of the business: the new deal

When we talk about the new international context today, we inevitably come back to the themes of globalization and mondialisation, generic notions that have come to the fore in recent years to describe the evolution of the international system. These terms are increasingly used, and are the subject of much controversy. The image of globalization is often highly polemical and negative, or reductive and limited to the simple expansion of "trade". However, the process of globalization cannot be reduced to free trade, and encompasses the freeing of restrictions on capital movements on a global scale. The aim is to facilitate the movement of people, goods and ideas, and to extend access to investments and natural resources that were once the exclusive domain of states. This is why the global vision of this new context is giving rise to new risks, new opportunities and new challenges at micro and macro-economic, political and social levels. Inequalities, for example, are at the heart of our concerns, on a global scale as well as at individual and national levels. Is the changing global context increasing them? Should we continue to develop trade to reduce them? Or, on the contrary, should we sink into withdrawal, protectionism and "economic patriotism"?

As with capital, labor and natural resources, technological advances in telecommunications and transport are unquestionably the driving forces behind this new, fast-changing international context. They are the engines of a knowledge-based economy. To be a player in today's global economy, it is essential to master all aspects of knowledge. This is as true for the small exporting SME as it is for the French state, which, through its actions or inactions, influences the competitiveness of French companies and France's place in the world.