What happens next to globalization?

Despite the handwringing about US President Donald Trump’s tariff war, which many claim sounds the death knell for the world’s trading system, and worries about heightened geopolitical tensions, globalization is not ending.

- Zia Qureshi

But it is being fundamentally restructured by geopolitical shifts, technological transformation, and climate change. And each of these forces will affect globalization in different ways.

For starters, the rise of China and other economies is bringing an end to the postwar world order dominated by the US. Escalating strategic rivalries, coupled with populist politics, have ushered in an era of economic nationalism, upending old paradigms and fuelling trade tensions. Economies that used to preach the neoliberal gospel of free markets and openness have embraced nationalist industrial policies, protectionism, and discriminatory trade practices. This shift is most apparent in the US, formerly the chief exponent of neoliberalism and the de facto guarantor of the multilateral system.