Rewiring trade for a warming world
The challenge for policymakers is to build rules that function amid disagreement in a divided world. Dennis Snower discusses how COP30 can turn climate goals into trade rules
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Global Economy
The rise and fall of globalisation
For over 400 years the world economy has seen greater globalisation. Steve Schifferes believes the weakness of international institutions and the limited visions of governments are not optimistic signs for the future of globalisation
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The shifting landscape of trade and investment
China’s BRI has reorganised global value chains. Yasuyuki Todo, Shuhei Nishitateno and Sean Brown reveal that the initiative has triggered strategic and divergent responses among major investor countries, depending on their economic and political relationships with China
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Can the World Trade Organization survive?
The foundations of the multilateral trading system have been shaken. Petros Mavroidis argues that reviving the WTO will require a determined effort from the key stakeholders to address issues that the membership has previously avoided
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Sanctions without borders?
Thematic sanctions are being increasingly used as a foreign policy tool. Henrietta Worthington and Jaime Rosenberg consider the benefits and challenges for multinational organisations operating across jurisdictions
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The flawed rationale behind America’s reciprocal tariffs
The Trump administration imposed ‘reciprocal tariffs’ using powers granted under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Gene Grossman and Alan Sykes argue that the tariffs do not meet two core requirements for the exercise of emergency powers under the Act
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Trump’s tariffs as fiscal folly
In 2025 the US government underwent a large fiscal switch. Kimberly Clausing and Maurice Obstfeld evaluate tariffs as a broad tool of fiscal policy, reviewing both tax policy and macroeconomic considerations, and concludes that this fiscal switch will leave most Americans worse off
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The Great Divergence and the Great Reversal
The economic and political gaps between China and the West is one of the defining challenges of the modern era. Avner Greif, Joel Mokyr and Guido Tabellini argue that institutions and culture played a key role in setting Europe and China on divergent paths well before the onset of the Industrial Revolution
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The EU should moderate its steel protection plan
There is a steel overcapacity problem. Ignacio García Bercero considers a European Commission proposal for a tight quota and high steel tariffs that risks undermining perceptions of the European Union as a reliable trading partner
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Geopolitical shifts and their economic impacts on Europe
The rules-based international system has fundamentally altered. André Sapir, Jacob Funk Kirkegaard and Jeromin Zettelmeyer examine the short-term risks, medium-term scenarios and policy choices and discuss how Europe can hold its own in a multipolar world
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