GOOLAM BALLIM: Political polarisation and the future of global markets
The last three decades featured significant global integration in terms of goods trade, financial flows, and people mobility
For a brief period in the early 1990s the world became relatively unipolar, centred on a dominant US and its neoliberal, democratic order, after the end of the Soviet Union. Democracy spread and military conflict deaths reached their lowest levels in recent history. Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, many more “voices” — countries with increased economic heft and geopolitical influence, such as China — would emerge, giving impetus to global multipolarity.
The last three decades featured significant global integration in terms of goods trade, financial flows, and people mobility. Global supply chains expanded rapidly, driven by cost advantages and co-operative economic policies. The World Trade Organisation played a key role in reducing trade barriers, leading to total international trade exceeding half of global GDP by 2020...
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