- Convenors:
-
Peiwen Xiong
(King's College London)
Xi Chen (Queen Mary University of London)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Paper panel
- Stream:
- Economics of development: Finance, trade and livelihoods
Short Abstract
Free trade is being increasingly challenged. We seem to be at the dawn of a new era of “techno-nationalist globalization” in which the national ownership of hi-tech and supply chain security have become key issues in global economy. This panel will explore these new transformations of globalization.
Description
The norms of free trade, which had been ascendant since 1945 are being increasingly challenged, with globalization appearing to moving to a new era in which the national ownership of advanced technology has become a key security issue in geopolitical rivalry. The current competition over technical leadership and supply chains among major economies precisely exemplifies this ongoing “tech war”; the heightened confrontation between the United States and China is now widely said to even constitute a “Second Cold War”.
This trend of securitization simultaneously influences economic governance within states and reshapes the global geoeconomic order. It manifests not only as direct state intervention in firms’ operations, but as restrictions on trade and technology transfer through intensifying tariffs, investment regulations and export controls. These transformations demand urgent rethinking of globalization and the role of the state within it. Compared to the 1990s’ “retreat of the state”, now many commentators hail the “return of the state”, while others insist firms’ autonomy vis-à-vis the state and the enduring power of capital.
This panel proposal invites reflections on the political economy aspects of the transformation of globalization and evolving relations between state and capital. We welcome contributions on topics including but not limited to the following:
•Theoretical or conceptual papers exploring the current globalization, e.g., contributions to theorizing these fresh transformations, the breakdown of free trade, etc.
•Empirical studies of the techno-nationalist trade/industrial policies, e.g., how states shape “resilient” global value chains, studies of the extent of (non)compliance by firms, etc.