The New World Order
How Covid-19 is accelerating the coming changes
So, farewell globalization. As the virus accelerated in its propagation throughout the world, one after another nation decided to close down its borders except to the most essential traffic. Freedom of movement in the EU was promptly, but quietly, revoked, and nations circled the wagons in fearful self-defence.
One of the features of this new introspection touches on trade in vital medical supplies. Tests, masks, ventilators and other requisites first became the subject of bidding wars, and were then embargoed for export and redirected internally.
Supply chains and dependency on cross-border provisioning were laid bare. Who seriously thinks that we will ever return to how things were, rather than endeavouring to become self-sufficient in what we now know to be essential goods and services?
In the BC (Before Coronavirus) years, liberal commentators were keen to lambast the rise of national populism as being the winding back of decades of progress in international co-operation. It may be hard for them to find a ready audience for a while. In the UK, the fragmentation has gone down to regional level, with popular holiday spots deemed out of bounds to vacationers and second-home owners.
