The year that began with lots of hope is drawing to a close on a note of concern and some cautious optimism. In between, there was shock, some not so pleasant surprises and renewed promise of a better future. It’s always a huge risk to pre-judge history but I think I’ll still go out on a limb and declare that when the definitive history of globalisation is written, 2016 will stand out as the year in which the idea of the flat world, the global village and the credo of freer and fairer markets and open borders (for trade in goods at least) suffered several body blows.
The Brexit vote came as an unpleasant surprise to many, but that was only the first chapter in what is threatening to become a pan-Western paeán to reactionary protectionism. Across the Atlantic, the maverick billionaire and Washington outsider, Donald Trump, confounded critics by riding triumphantly to power despite losing the popular vote. Back in Europe, Italy, the mainland’s third-largest economy, is going through political convulsions following a referendum defeat for reformist Prime Minister Matteo Renzi that could have repercussions for the EU still grappling with the impending exit of the UK. In France, the ultra right anti-EU leader Marine Le Pen is knocking on the door of government even as Eurosceptics seem to be on the ascendant in The Netherlands. The common thread running through all these seemingly disparate events is a distrust of globalisation and a knee jerk tendency in Western democracies to shut the doors on freer trade, close the entry points for migrants and turn their backs on the very philosophy that gave them unprecedented wealth and global power over the last five centuries. Read more…
