Geopolitics and global economic governance

This article analyses the relationship between geopolitics and global economic governance from an international relations perspective, laying stress on the long-term changes that have taken place in the character and dynamics of modern global international society. First, it unpacks what is involved in talk about the ‘the return of geopolitics’, arguing that the international political system needs to be understood in its own right and according to its distinctive logics and dynamics, separate from those of modern capitalism. The second section shifts the focus from the modern international to the modern global, arguing that the ‘we’ now involved in both geopolitics and global economic governance has changed in fundamental ways and that the diffusion of power and agency and the revolt against Western dominance are far broader than the rise of China. The final section looks at future pathways: the unlikely possibility of the restoration of US hegemony; the case for the primacy of political order over global governance and for refocusing attention on the primary or foundational institutions on which all more elaborate forms of global governance must depend; and the identification of some of the most important institutional pinch-points where geopolitics and global economic governance intersect and need to be managed, including sanctions, security-related trade measures, and industrial strategy.