What speeds up or slows global interactions

Answer

The sense that places feel **closer** because faster transport and communications cut the **time and cost** of crossing the distance between them.

Answer

The **fall in travel time (and cost)** between two places as transport and communications technology improves.

Answer

No — its real size is unchanged. What shrinks is the **friction of distance**: the time, cost and effort of crossing it.

Answer

Sail to **steamship** to **railway** to **jet airliner** (plus container shipping and high-speed rail).

Answer

The postal letter to the **telegraph** to the **telephone** to the **internet** and **social media**.

Answer

Because it depends on **access** to technology — the **digital divide** leaves poorer and remoter groups with a large, slow world.

Answer

A body of cooperating governments that sets **shared rules** to smooth flows of trade, money and people across borders.

Answer

An agreed area within which **tariffs and trade barriers are cut**, speeding the movement of goods and capital between members.

Answer

A special industrial area offering **tax breaks and relaxed rules** to attract investment and accelerate export flows.

Answer

**MGOs** (shared rules) and **free-trade zones / EPZs** (cut tariffs, tax breaks) — both lower barriers to flows.

Answer

**Physical geography** (mountains, deserts, distance, isolation) and **poor access to technology** (the digital divide).

Answer

Political and economic **structures decide how fast** flows move; **physical geography caps how far** they reach — so they interact rather than simply compete.