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 fifth and final paper of the Deglobalisation Essay Series titled ‘Trajectory of Deglobalizing Forces: How Resilient Is Germany?’ looks into the two key drivers for current discussions on international economic policy-making in Germany: the Russian war against Ukraine and the strategic competition with China.