Globalization needs peace and an absence of threats to thrive. This was achieved with the abolition of the Cold War. Now, however, America is waging war, which bodes ill for globalization. The free movement of goods and people is a prerequisite for globalization. Yet the United States has made the movement of people so difficult that it now needs weeks for a US visa to come through if it comes through at all. The transfer of funds, meanwhile, has become a fraught business because of fears that the money might be used to fund terrorism. There has been a severe downturn in the performance of globalization recently. The volume of world trade, which grew at a rate of 15 percent in 2000, shrank by 4 percent in 2001. Foreign direct investment, which stood at $1.27 trillion in 2000, tumbled to less than half that figure in 2001. The value of equity trading on world stock markets tumbled from $50 trillion in 2000 to a third that figure the following year. America promoted globalization when it felt it was to its advantage to do so; it dealt it a mortal blow, however, when it discovered that globalization was a two-edged sword that could also be used by terrorists.