End of globalisation concerns are exaggerated

RUSSIA’S barbaric war against Ukraine, coming on top of Covid-19 and already strained US/China relations, has given risen to much discussion about the world moving towards two blocs, decoupling and the end of globalisation.

While these factors will combine to spawn fundamental geopolitical and economic changes, many of the prognostications seem exaggerated.

Is the world headed towards two blocs – a perspective that might be implicit in US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s references to friend-shoring and trusted partners? The world has vastly changed since the East/West splits of the Cold War. The ‘West’ consists now of North America, Europe (including the former Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe and parts of the ex-Soviet empire), Australia, Korea and others.