UNPACKING ‘DEGLOBALIZATION’ MYTHS


Fragmentation and polarization are key aspects of our ‘G Zero’ world, in which no single country or group of countries is able, let alone willing to drive some form of ‘global’ agenda, and thereby maintain some semblance of ‘world order’.


As with so many problems in the world, it reflects amongst other things a failure to reform and adapt regional and supranational organisations (such as the UN, IMF/World Bank, EU or NATO) to changes in the world’s economic architecture and multilateral balances of power. Those changes have clearly been accelerated by the technological or fourth Industrial Revolution, which along with the post ‘Cold War’ peace dividend facilitated the processes of globalization. But those processes which went largely unchecked, thanks in no small part to a spirit of ‘laissez faire’, and also allowed enormous imbalances to accrue, which are at the heart of current geopolitical tensions.


‘Deglobalization’ is a sweeping generalization that fails to convey underlying economic and geopolitical realities. It can be argued that it is a lazy, but convenient way to describe the current reaction to the period of intense globalization borne on the wings of the post Cold War ‘peace dividend’, which unleashed the ongoing fourth industrial (or technological) revolution. But taking a brief moment to reflect on this narrative, it is very much a European and North American perspective on the world. One that assumes their primacy in the global economic order, which Asia’s de facto status as the primary engine of global economic growth denies. Deglobalization is in theory a way of asserting hegemony in the world economic order, with the disingenuous implication that ‘derisking’ (from China primarily), ‘reshoring’ or ‘near shoring’ will serve to remind the rest of the world that it is dependent on demand from US and European businesses and consumers, and be thankful for that ‘privilege’ (according to populist rhetoric).


DEGLOBALIZATION IS IN THEORY A WAY OF ASSERTING HEGEMONY IN THE WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER, WITH THE DISINGENUOUS IMPLICATION THAT ‘DERISKING’


4 | ADMISI - The Ghost In The Machine | Q2 Edition 2025


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