Search All Site Content

Total Index: 6068 publications.

Subscribe to our Mailing List!

Sign up for our mailing list to keep up to date on all the latest developments.

Whither Globalization and Supply Chain?
Published April 28, 2023
Publication Source: KIEP
Download PDF

Globalization has been a dominant trend in the world economy over the past few decades. However, in recent years, globalization may be facing headwinds. While globalization has brought about many benefits, such as economic growth, poverty reduction, and increased access to goods and services, it has also been criticized for being responsible for rising inequality, environmental degradation, and social disruptions. So, is globalization over? This might be a defining question for today’s global economy. Professor Joseph Nye of Harvard University wrote an article with the exact title in March this year. Early in 2020, right after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, deglobalization quickly became a buzzword. Professor Douglas Irwin of Dartmouth College, among others, wrote a column for VoxEU, which was titled, “The pandemic adds momentum to the deglobalisation trend.” In stark contrast to what these titles suggest, however, both of them argue the opposite in their conclusions. More recently, tensions between the US and China have risen sharply, leading to elevated pressure for decoupling of the global supply chain and intense competition in critical industries and advanced technologies. Nevertheless, in a speech at Johns Hopkins University a few days ago, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that any US effort to decouple from China would be “disastrous” and called for a “constructive and fair” economic relationship between China and the US. Secretary Yellen’s speech might be reinforcing the view that it requires collective efforts and cooperation of all stakeholders to address pressing global common issues. Globalization is not going away, at least for the time being. Rather, it is evolving, with its governance undergoing a transformation required to adapt to the changing economic realities.

This paper was published by KIEP. KIEP retains the copyright to this paper and invites readers to share and cite the work with attribution to both the author(s) and KIEP.