The return of the nation: A shock given the highly globalised system that preceded it

Like all crises, the COVID crisis has led to non-cooperative policies , which can be characterised as “the return of the nation”: desire for sovereignty, to reduce dependence on the rest of the world; national preference in consumption, public procurement and employment; calls for reshoring; desire for technological leadership, etc. The difficulty is that under globalisation, production and companies had been organised completely differently and that it will take a very long time and be difficult to change this system. This may give rise to some acute conflicts, for example: A conflict around the efficiency of the economy: globalisation and global value chains allow countries to exploit their comparative advantages (demographics, education, savings, etc.), and have made economies more efficient; A conflict between the logic of business and the logic of the state. Companies have integrated into globalisation, produce globally and have multiple hubs in many countries. Their logic (choices relating to investment, employment, etc.) is then very different from that of an individual country; A conflict around consumer protection. The entire previous system (globalisation, offshoring, but also competition and use of fossil fuels) sought to reduce consumer prices and boost purchasing power. Deglobalisation, or the return of the nation, will lead to the abandonment of this objective, leading to a loss of efficiency and higher production costs.