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Defending Globalization: Foreign Affairs

September 2023
Defending Globalization - Foreign Policy - Schoolchildren

Essays

5-part series

Today, globalization—especially the U.S.-Chinese relationship—is frequently discussed in terms of foreign policy instead of economics. Policymakers often propose new subsidies or restrictions on trade and immigration to protect not local workers or companies but “national security.” Global supply chains are often said to raise concerns about the defense industrial base’s “dependency” on overseas suppliers and “vulnerabilities” to foreign threats.

Too often, however, discussions of globalization and foreign affairs simplistically (and erroneously) portray cross-border trade and migration as raising only threats. They ignore the more complicated reality of how globalization can also enhance national security, how trade agreements and immigration can advance geopolitical objectives, or where foreign allies and adversaries really stand today (and how they got there).

The essays in this Defending Globalization series will educate readers on the intersection of globalization and foreign affairs in brief, accessible language written by experts in the field. Readers will be left with a fuller understanding of what scholars know about globalization, security, and geopolitics in the United States and key foreign countries.

About the Authors
Daniel W. Drezner
Daniel W. Drezner

Professor of International Politics, Tufts University

Anna Maria Mayda
Anna Maria Mayda

Associate Professor, Economics, Georgetown University

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Alfredo Carrillo Obregon

Research Associate, Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies