In The News

Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman July 7, 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic exposed society’s dependence on globalization and the challenges. Trade went from predictable to uncertain as nations blocked and confiscated protective medical gear and other needed supplies. Leaders worry about similar disruptions for food or other necessary products. “But the crisis that globalization faces has roots that go far deeper than the current pandemic,” explain...
Thomas L. Friedman June 2, 2020
Global insecurity has intensified with the gradual dismantling of protections. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve been steadily removing man-made and natural buffers, redundancies, regulations and norms that provide resilience and protection when big systems – be they ecological, geopolitical or financial – get stressed,” explains Thomas Friedman for the New York Times. Obsession with short-term...
Mathilda Jordanova-Duda May 30, 2020
Equipment, whether routine appliances or life-saving ventilators, is manufactured with supply strains stretching over multiple countries. Mathilda Jordanova-Duda, writing for Deutsche Welle, describes how the Covid-19 pandemic prompted Boge, a German air-compressor business, to reassess its supply chains, including motors from Asia, piping from Eastern Europe, cooling systems from China and other...
Darmansjah Djumala May 21, 2020
Analysts debate globalization’s role in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, whether in spreading the disease or helping move needed services and goods. Writing for the Jakarta Post, Darmansjah Djumala categorizes globalization as both “process” and “order” – the first through technological advancements in transportation and communications and the second as a system of regulation and rule of law. The...
Nayan Chanda May 2, 2020
Travels and globalization have long been linked to new diseases that contributed to the death of millions: In the 1330s, the bubonic plague traveled along trade routes from China to Crimea and Europe. After 1492, European explorers introduced diseases like smallpox and diphtheria to the Americas, ravaging native populations. Such diseases disrupted trade for a spell, but innovations and...
Douglas A. Irwin April 28, 2020
International trade was already in retreat before the Covid-19. The pandemic will test cross-border supply chains, alliances, investments, travel and other connections. Douglas Irwin, writing for the Peterson Institute for International Economics, warns that protectionist steps to limit trade will slow or even reverse economic growth. He identifies recent eras of globalization: 1870 to 1914,...
Raphael S. Cohen April 13, 2020
As countries close borders to contain COVID-19 and consider new trading patterns for essential goods, analysts contemplate the end of globalization. Raphael S. Cohen, senior political scientist with Rand, refutes three sets of arguments. First, globalization has long endured destructive populism, deep divisions and pandemics. Second, viruses are part of the natural world, and the most competitive...