What seemed like an unstoppable process, the globalizationwith the ‘reset’ of borders and customs, at least for capital and merchandise (people are another thing) it turns out that it wasn’t so. Lose gas. With the access of Donald Trump to the presidency of the USA in 2017 all the alarms went off, before the rise of the protectionism. and it had to be China the one that came out at the Davos forum, where world elites meet annually (or they did before the pandemic), the one that came out in defense of globalization (“business is business”).
Not so many years have passed since Trump’s ‘America First’ and once we thought we had overcome that stage, the temptation to build borders and building blocs, something we thought had been forgotten, has resurfaced and, this time, from the other side of the world. Specifically, from the Russia that Vladimir Putin authoritatively managed. The war he has unleashed with the invasion of Ukraine It is not only about bullets and missiles (the most unfortunate and painful part) but economic and configures a new world context in which barriers can once again gain prominence and in which the positive part of globalization, access to the market of poorer countries to be able to sell their products and improve their living standards, fades away.
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The phenomenon is already taking place. There are companies that are rethinking recovering activities in their countries of origin to avoid shortages in the face of possible crises, pandemics or geopolitical conflicts, consultant representatives admit. The world, especially the Western world, is unplugging itself (or so it is trying to) from Russia, but also some countries and blocs are trying to depend less on others. That has brought us this war.
And, with an even greater risk: that the ultranationalisms mixed with populism with their simple and magical recipes to solve complex problems penetrate a fearful and tense electorate due to high prices, frozen salaries and the worsening of living conditions. It is the responsibility of politicians and institutions to prevent this from happening. A challenge.
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