Coronavirus Ushers in the Globalization We Were Afraid Of
Welcome to a new age of decreasing free trade and global cooperation, and rising nationalism and geopolitical rivalry.
Hong Kong enters the new age.
Photographer: Roy Liu/Bloomberg
Like the Sept. 11 attacks and the Great Recession, the coronavirus pandemic is an economic and geopolitical shock that will remain vivid in our minds long after it passes. But it is something more: Coronavirus is the historical marker between the first phase of globalization and the second.
In the first phase, which lasted from the end of the Cold War until very recently, globalization was about free-trade agreements, the building of global supply chains, creating and enlarging middle classes while alleviating extreme poverty, expanding democracy and vastly increasing both digital communications and global mobility. Despite all the setbacks — such as wars in Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East — Globalization 1.0 was basically a good news story, about intensifying planetary unity. It was friendly to optimists.