Statecraft, trade and strategy: toward a new global order

Abstract

The international institutions that have governed global trade since the end of World War II have lost their effectiveness, and global trade governance is fractured. The need for new institutions is obvious, and yet, few proposals seem to be on offer. The key to understanding the global trading order lies in uncovering the relationship between trade and the State, and how the inner constitution of statecraft drives the architecture of the global order and requires structural changes as the State traverses successive cycles. The current trade order, focused on the liberalisation of trade in goods and services and the management of related issues, is predicated on policies and practices that were the product of a global trading order of the 20th century modern nation-states. Today, a new form of the State – the post-modern State – is evolving. In this article, the authors propose a new trade norm – the enablement of global economic opportunity – and a new institution – the trade council – to overhaul the global trading order.