references
International network
KNOWLEDGE
Geoeconomics: the new paradigm for business
After the collapse of the Soviet Union it seemed that we were heading into a period of geopolitical stability in which the process of globalization and trade liberalization would be unstoppable.
In The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama claimed that after the Cold War, ideological conflict gradually disappear as the road to liberal democracy was inevitable and therefore the unification of economic and financial rules were only a matter of time. Western universalist values such as free market capitalism, liberal democracy, the rule of law and human rights, it was argued, were called to succeed globally. Business and civil society were called upon to play a central role in globalization, obtaining more autonomy from governments to ad16 APRIL--JUNE 2015
vance this new global democratic capitalism. The growing economic interdependence, the emphasis on new technologies and the attractiveness of regional integration processes were tipping the balance toward those who advocated in favour of the emergence of a globalized economic order, the weakening of the nation state and converging values. The reality has turned out to be quite different. Today, companies that venture abroad will find a more heterogeneous environment in which regulatory idiosyncrasies,
geopolitical risks and different models of capitalist free markets will decisively condition their strategies. With the absence of global leadership and effective global governance international norms are eroding. During the last few years the relevance of geo-economics, the interplay between economics and geopolitics, has grown significantly, displacing the logic of openness that globalization by one of potential competition between states. A revival of the logic of competition for territory, economic resources, and market access is rising to a geo-