Deglobalization: Economic and Political Challenges

During the last seventy years, a US-centric globalization following World War II flourished. Free market structures and policies nurtured the growth and advancements of global markets and improved the economic conditions of a large segment of the global population. In a US-based global American multinational system, US global 500 firms grew and flourished and helped the economic recovery of Europe, as well as Japan and South Korea, and aided other smaller Asian economies. The arrival of the Indian economy to the global marketplace lifted the 1.3 billion inhabitants of the Indian lower and middle classes. Furthermore, the Chinese economy with its equally large population, experienced much faster economic growth than that of India. China became the factory of the planet in our global village. Moreover, other state-owned multi national firms from other emerging economies arrived to the global economy and started to compete with US multinational enterprises. The structural deployment of assets and capabilities of multinational corporations whether in multinational formats or transnational formats led to global efficiencies and global economic growth and supported global links. The geocentric mind set of US corporate leaders and decision makers, while initially absent, became more evident to US global leaders and helped further the development of economic structures in emerging markets. The efficiency of the US multinational system led to economic growth not only in the United States but also across Asia-Pacific economies. This helped lead the arrival of the Chinese to global markets and the entry of China to the World Trade Organization (WTO), helped to reduce Chinese poverty, and fueled its GDP growth rate – a rate that ranged from 8 to 10% annually for over 3 decades. COVID-19 exacted and demanded a lockdown, not only in China and across the Asia-Pacific countries but in other countries and reduced GDP growth rates worldwide. Following that, the economic benefits of globalization were certainly put to question, and employees across the United States and elsewhere pointed out that globalization helped the winners and impoverished them (the workers). They also argued that the benefits of globalization accrued mostly to the few at the top of the economic pyramid. Today we have serious global economic challenges and a desire to disengage from the global economy behind a mind set that the global economy did not benefit the majority of the population in this global village that we are living in. The evident advantages of a multinational corporate vision such as scale and scope and technological growth and innovation, are now called into question. JOURNAL OF ASIA-PACIFIC BUSINESS 2022, VOL. 23, NO. 4, 273–276 https://doi.org/10.1080/10599231.2022.2145623