Emerging Challenges and Political Opportunities in a New Globalization Era

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

The changing dynamics of globalization present a spectrum of understudied challenges and political opportunities demanding scholarly attention. This panel focuses on three emerging political opportunities and one overlooked security challenge posed by globalization and explores how these opportunities and challenges intersect with domestic and local actors. The first ‘opportunity’ paper focuses on the potential to transcend partisan conflicts over redistribution in response to globalization shocks, suggesting a pathway for collaborative bipartisan solutions amid economic shifts.

The second ‘opportunity’ party analyzes labor empowerment amidst expanding globalization. Opportunity arises as workers gain the capacity to govern global supply chains through initiatives such as the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility. Worker agency, particularly originating from the Global South, may also become a crucial factor in reshaping global labor practices and fostering equitable conditions within supply chains.

The third ‘opportunity’ paper, explores how global value chains involving developing countries open up another avenue of positive prospects for labor. This shift grants labor in developed nations increased political space to influence the policies in their favor. As US-based lead firms increasingly engage in intricate supply chains with less developed countries, they may have reduced incentives to resist labor-related policies. This, in turn, can mitigate MNC lobbying efforts against the expansion of labor-friendly policies in their home countries, fostering a more friendly labor environment in the Global North.

The fourth paper on the panel focuses on an understudied challenge linked with globalization. Challenges emerge when geo-economic adjustments impact the competitiveness of powerful domestic actors. In such cases, the interests of these actors may lead to pathological outcomes, sacrificing security and economic benefits for the sake of domestic political objectives.

The panel takeaway is that balancing these challenges and opportunities becomes imperative for a sustainable and equitable global economic landscape.

Sub Unit

• Division 16: International Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• Building Bridges: Bipartisan Support for Redistribution in a Globalizing World - Stephen Chaudoin, Harvard University; Nita Rudra, Georgetown University; Kevin Troy, Harvard University

• Can Workers Govern Supply Chains? Global South Social Responsibility Initiatives - Ali Bhagat, Simon Fraser University; Genevieve LeBaron, Simon Fraser University

• Empowering Labor? Analyzing the Political Effects of Global Value Chains - Niccolo W. Bonifai, Georgetown University; Nita Rudra, Georgetown University

• Barriers to Geo-Economic Adjustment: Germany’s Responses to Chinese Investment - Jonas Heering, Georgetown University; Abraham Newman, Georgetown University

Chair

• Abraham Newman Georgetown University

Discussants

• Judith Lynn Goldstein Stanford University

• Edward D. Mansfield University of Pennsylvania