A U.S.-China trade war, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are three blows that spell, for a growing number of observers, an end to globalization.
While there is a powerful rebuttal, I’m with the pessimists. The terms of international engagement, and economic activities in particular, are changing. That’s natural and proper as power and principles themselves evolve.
Key to this world order is the role of new and emerging technologies. Ironically, these tools and the connectivity that they facilitated encouraged globalization; now, they are seen as sources of vulnerability. The resulting suspicion and fear are splintering — Balkanizing — the global economy. It isn’t quite deglobalization but it’s just as pernicious.