Whether you're reading this article on a smartphone, tablet or laptop, chances are the device in front of you contains components from at least six countries spanning three or more continents. Its sleek exterior belies the complicated and intricate set of internal parts that only a global supply chain can provide. Over the past century, finished products made in a single country have become increasingly hard to find as globalization — weighted a term as it is — has stretched supply chains to the ends of the Earth. Now, anything from planes, trains and automobiles to computers, cellphones and appliances can trace its hundreds of pieces to nearly as many companies around the world. And its assembly might take place in a different country still.

Opportunities for producing and assembling products and their components have spread worldwide, making it is easier for countries to climb the production value ladder. States at the bottom, extracting raw materials, can gradually move up, first making low-value components and then progressing to higher-value ones or basic assembly. But just as technology spurred globalization and the shifts in international trade that followed, so, too, will it revolutionize how countries again do business with one another. Compounded by the economic and demographic changes taking place today, automation, advanced robotics and software-driven technologies are ushering in a new era — one of shorter supply chains that will provide fewer opportunities for the developing world. Regions once labeled "emerging economies" may instead stagnate, and the divide between the haves and have-nots within and among nations could widen further.

The Dawn of Globalization and Trade

Globalization in its current form may be only a few decades old, but international trade is not a new concept. From antiquity, technology has driven and enabled transformations in the global order. Caravel ships and the compass, for instance, brought about the age of European exploration, the journeys of which were only sped up by steam power. Even so, few would have guessed that something as simple as a box would form the cornerstone of the latest era.

Sixty years ago, Malcom McLean, an American businessman and entrepreneur, launched the first container ship from a New Jersey port, forever changing how goods move around the world. By using a standard-sized container that could be transported from ship to rail or truck, McLean made shipping goods between two points far more efficient. Rather than taking days or weeks to unload a ship, it now took hours. Though another decade passed before McLean's methods were used on an intercontinental voyage, and several years more before the technology reached Europe, his experiment altered the way the world worked. The first container ship, Ideal X, set sail carrying just 58 trailer units in spring 1956; today, ships have become so large that the biggest can carry nearly 20,000 units.

The explosion of container shipping meant that goods and parts no longer had to be made in proximity to their users. As location became less of a factor in production, the importance of other considerations such as labor costs rose. Not only did low-end manufacturing increase, first in China and then in other parts of Southeast Asia, but supply chains also became longer and more complex. The creation of the World Trade Organization only accelerated globalization by regulating the new economic environment and helping to link producers with their buyers. A number of industries, including the automobile and electronics sectors, were able to take full advantage of the sweeping changes the container ship had wrought.