Globalization, Deglobalization, and Global Value Chains between History and Geopolitics

Globalization, Deglobalization, and Global Value Chains between History and Geopolitics

Valeria Giacomin, Andrea Colli

Globalization is often discussed as a recent and almost inevitable process. Yet history shows that global economic integration has always advanced unevenly, through phases of expansion, crisis, fragmentation, and reconstruction. Firms have been central actors in this process. They built international markets, organized production across borders, and connected distant regions through capital, technology, labor, and knowledge since the early stages of capitalism. At the same time, they also had to adapt and find creative solutions when these connections were disrupted by political instability, leading to protectionism, economic nationalism, sanctions, political instability and even wars.

This Initiative explores globalization and deglobalization through the history of firms and global value chains (GVCs). It starts from the idea that, far from being a new and recent concept, GVCs are historically embedded arrangements shaped by institutions, political regimes, infrastructures, and business strategies, beyond their technical role of maximizing efficiency or profitability. Given the succession of multiple phases of globalization in World history, how have firms built GVCs in these contexts of transnational integration? 

More importantly, how have they responded when markets, basically for political reasons, started to be distorted, or even closed up , uncertain, risky or un-reliable? And what can earlier episodes of disruption, hitting pre-modern value chains, tell us about today’s debates on reshoring, strategic autonomy, and contemporary supply-chain resilience? Answering these questions requires looking at value chains both “in time”, through the specific crises firms faced, and “over time”, as cumulative processes of adaptation, learning, and reorganization.

This Initiative builds on a Dondena’s distinctive strength: the ability to study firms and markets historically, while connecting their evolution to present-day economic and political questions. By looking at earlier moments when international business was reshaped by war, protectionism, autarky, and institutional change, we can better understand the fragility and the adaptability of these (barely new) modes of production. The Initiative will leverage on this expertise to reach audiences beyond academia, with formats such as short videos, podcasts, public discussions, and accessible briefs on what past disruptions can tell us about today’s uncertain global economy. 

Research highlights

Multinationals and Global Value Chains (Valeria Giacomin and Andrea Colli, survey article) 

Globalization: A Key Idea for Business and Society (Andrea Colli and Veronica Binda, book).

Geopolitical Risk Index (website maintained by Andrea Colli, with the collaboration of the Geopolitics for Business Students)