Now, technology and global interconnectedness have robbed us of our protection.

But Friedman is going to spend the next 470 pages turning the "flat world" into a metaphor for global interconnectedness.

Mr. Corner called his partnership of 20th-century territorial power and 21st-century green, global interconnectedness "a kind of Bush meets Gore hybrid."

This is another step toward creating an effective global financial safety net to deal with increased global interconnectedness.

Jeffrey T. La Riche, the vice president for cultural programing for the center, speaks enthusiastically of high-technology attractions that will stress the concept of global interconnectedness.

The organization is the publisher of YaleGlobal Online, an online magazine that explores globalization and implications of growing global interconnectedness in economics, security, trade, politics and the environment.

And so the stage is set for Kingsolver's latest exploration of her perennial themes of family, community and global interconnectedness.

"The global interconnectedness and technology services available are growing at an unbelievable pace," he said.

This new global interconnectedness and free flow of information has radically altered notions of other cultures, conflicts, religions and taboos.

In "Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny" (2000), he argued that there is a moral direction to human history, that technological growth and expanding global interconnectedness have moved us toward ever more positive and mutually beneficial relationships with others.