Global Shipping in Small Nations: Nordic Experiences after 1960

The period from the second half of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first has sometimes been called ‘the second era of globalization’. Shipping stood at the centre of this process, a position that may be explained in at least three ways. First, the shipping industry was by far the most important carrier of the expanding global trade in goods and raw materials, which made possible the wave of outsourcing and transnationally integrated value chains. Second, the shipping industry was more global in its growth strategies and political and institutional structures than most other industries. Finally, the cyclical movements of modern shipping could be regarded almost as an economic ‘Richter scale’ measuring the varying amounts of energy released by globalization. The fate of shipping is thus closely linked to the ebb and tide of economic activity and world trade. At the same time, the industry has made important contributions to the development and shape of the world economy through its reactions to the seismic disturbances.