Some of the most well-known symbols that are now familiar to billions worldwide are Coca Cola, MTV, Madonna and McDonald's, to name just a few. Although it is very difficult to explain the causes behind it, the strongest form of globalization is the cultural one. The easiest explanation one can come up with regarding this truth is the fact that culture directly affects and influences each of us irrespective of political affiliation, economic status or say, education. Culture is part of our lives and determines who we are in terms of our cultural identity. Globalization alters our perception of culture because culture was, for a long period of time, directly related to the idea of a fixed community or geographical region. This perception has changed drastically due to the complex connections that have been established thanks to the development of the means of communication whose king is, without a doubt, the Internet. Nevertheless, a global culture - which would incorporate the entire world population and would replace the diversity of cultural systems with a sole set of practices and symbols - has not appeared yet.
Culture remains an important factor in international relations. Because culture provides such a fundamental basis for human existence, it serves to shape all levels of human interaction. Cultural differences can impede the ability of groups and individuals to communicate and cooperate....
Historically, cultural differences have provided the basis for some of the world's bloodiest conflicts. Yet changes in communications alter cultures-expanding, changing, and destroying them. It is important to understand how changes in communications affect the distribution of cultures in the international system. At this point in the history of humanity there are a lot of questions regarding the future that are waiting to be answered. Nonetheless, perhaps the most stringent question as far as globalization is related not to the positive/negative character of the phenomenon - as many would think, but to its main vehicle, i.e. communications; therefore one could ask himself, 'what impact does the expansion of communications have on the rate at which cultures hybridize?'
Cultural trends are connected to the existence of a model which can take different shapes. However, none of these shapes is big and open enough to encompass all the options of the consumers. One can look at globalization as a strong attempt to find a common language - figuratively speaking - among cultures and cultural identities. There are voices which claim that globalization does not seek to unify cultural trends, but to maintain cultural plurality and to ensure the access to culture precisely through these differences which also represent the basis of a cultural dialogue between distinct traditions, sets of values etc.
