Major recent events have amplified globalisation’s failures: broken supply chains, food and energy inflation, and vaccine inequity due to intellectual property rights that serve to funnel pandemic profits to a few multinational companies. Proposed responses to these problems have ranged from “reshoring” or “friend-shoring” production to enacting “industrial policies to increase country capacities to produce” (Stiglitz, 2022). It seems that the unfettered endorsement of globalisation has given way to the recognition that at least some national borders are necessary for economic development and security.

Has globalisation reached its zenith? How can we better manage its decline? In this vein, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s (KAS) Regional Economic Programme Asia (SOPAS) has published a five-paper “Deglobalisation Essay series” which focuses on the following topic: How has deglobalisation impacted economies and economic policy?

The fourth paper of the Deglobalisation Essay Series looks into developments of trade relations in South Asia and shows the way forward for South Asian countries to capitalise on the region’s strong upside potential.