Opinion Essay on Commanding Heights
Watching Commanding Heights felt less like a distant documentary and more like a conversation about the world I’ve grown up and worked in. The series charts the global shift from state-led economies to free-market globalization and the fallout that followed. For me, it wasn’t just theory, it connected directly to what I’ve seen in India, Bangladesh, and now in New York.
The first thing that struck me was how familiar the tension between state control and markets felt. India had already liberalized by the time I was a child, so I didn’t personally experience the “License Raj” era, but I grew up hearing about how the 1990s changed everything. When I entered the workforce, I could still see the aftershocks. Foreign brands were everywhere, consumer culture had expanded, and companies like Shahi Exports, where I worked- thrived by supplying to global retailers. Watching the documentary show how countries like India opened up to markets in the ’90s felt like someone was narrating the background to my own career.
What hit closer to home was how the series highlighted the unevenness of globalization. At Shahi and later while working with Bangladeshi factories and agencies, I saw both sides of the story. On one hand, liberalization created opportunities: global orders, better machinery, international exposure, and chances for local managers like me to work with brands such as H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Inditex. On the other hand, I witnessed the cost pressures that forced factories to push workers harder, cut margins to the bone, and compromise on well-being. The film showed workers in Mexico or Latin America struggling under similar global demands, and I couldn’t help but think of the women I met in South Asian factories who lived those realities every day.
The episodes on financial crises felt almost too familiar. In Bangladesh, the garment industry is so tied to international buyers that any global shock, whether a financial crisis, a trade policy change, or even a shipping disruption can leave entire factories vulnerable. I’ve been in meetings where a single canceled order from a Western buyer triggered panic about payroll for thousands of workers. When Commanding Heights showed how fast capital can flow into a country and then just as quickly drain out, it wasn’t abstract to me. I’ve seen livelihoods hanging on those sudden swings.
Another part of the series that stayed with me was the WTO protests in Seattle. In the West, the narrative often frames globalization as a story of jobs being outsourced and local industries hollowing out. But sitting there as an Indian professional, I felt the irony. Globalization has absolutely created inequality in South Asia — wages are low, working conditions are tough — yet it has also given millions of women in Bangladesh their first job, their first income, and in some cases, their first independence. The protesters in Seattle and the workers in Dhaka were essentially two sides of the same coin, both frustrated by a system that didn’t fully work for them. Watching that clash on screen helped me see just how differently globalization is experienced depending on where you stand.
What I appreciated most about Commanding Heights was how it reminded me that economic policy is not just academic debate. It is about choices. Choices about who gets to compete, who gets left behind, and what rules are enforced. Sitting in New York now, I walk past fast-fashion stores filled with inexpensive clothes, and I can’t unsee the production floors I once managed. Every shirt on those racks is linked to the debates in the documentary: free markets versus regulation, efficiency versus equity, global growth versus local struggle.
At the same time, I found myself pushing back against the documentary’s framing. It sometimes made it sound like markets “won” and state control “lost.” But in my lived experience, it’s not that simple. Governments are still deeply involved, through subsidies, trade rules, and labor laws (or lack thereof). Markets alone cannot ensure fairness. In fact, many of the inequalities I’ve seen in South Asian supply chains exist precisely because governments step back too much. The series touched on this but didn’t dwell long enough on the need for balance.
In the end, my opinion is that Commanding Heights succeeds in showing how big ideas shape history, but its real value lies in making us reflect on our place in that story. For me, it was a reminder that globalization is not an abstract wave; it’s something I have negotiated daily as a manager, a supplier, and now as a student learning about the global system from New York. Watching it reinforced a conviction I already had: globalization isn’t inevitable, it’s designed. And if it’s designed, it can be redesigned, hopefully in ways that make it more sustainable and just for the people whose labor holds it up.
Comments