Is globalization still inevitable? For more than a generation the world's economy has been on a seemingly inexorable march toward tighter economic, political, and social alignment as people, goods, and capital became ever more mobile. Yet even before the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, a backlash was brewing against globalization's dislocating effects, even among some who understand the benefits of trade and investment. The terror attacks and their aftermath, replete with the specter of a long-running conflict between Islamic fundamentalism and the modern economy, quickly sparked a rethinking of convictions about globalization's forward momentum.

Executives plotting their companies' strategies on this unforeseen landscape may well have to recalculate the speed and direction of trade and economic liberalization. And they will certainly have to factor in new costs, barriers, and uncertainties. But they should also take reassurance from the fact that the fundamental forces that helped globalization take firm root and grow will secure its progress, through this crisis and beyond.

Globalization sounds clinical, yet in the final analysis it is about the impulses of institutions and people. It is about the desire of companies to earn profits. The choices savers seek to earn a high return on...