Geopolitical Risks and Supply Chain Challenges

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Geopolitical tensions have increasingly rocked global supply chains and forced firms and states to pay more attention to alternative arrangements as a risk mitigation strategy. This panel brings together research on the diverse and latest responses by firms and states to such tensions, ranging from decoupling with China, friend-shoring to third countries, backshoring to the United States, to shifts in currency power. In doing so, we shed new light on the increasingly critical role of firms and states in global economic integration and great power competition.

To begin with, Eldes et al’s paper investigates how alternative markets for sourcing and production affect firms’ decision to decouple from China, while Cichanowicz and Zhang zooms into the case of Japanese firms and examines how security interests shape their decoupling or friend-shoring decisions. On the other hand, Li and Zeng’s study shows home countries’ labor protection contributes to the backshoring decisions of American firms amid high geopolitical tensions. Finally, we turn to Weldzius and Buckson who use the case of the electric vehicle sector to illustrate the influence of geopolitics in currency power shifts during the Green Transition.

The papers in this panel utilize innovative methods and novel datasets to tackle important issues in the relationship between firms and states. We expect that this panel will draw not only scholars with an interest in international political economy but also researchers and professionals in the fields of business, law, and politics in a broader context. The panel organizers have previously coordinated sessions on international political economy at APSA meetings, and these sessions have consistently attracted high attendance.

Sub Unit

• Division 16: International Political Economy

Individual Presentations

• Finding Friendly Trade Partners amidst Decoupling from China - Ayse Eldes, Princeton University; Jieun Lee, University at Buffalo, SUNY; Iain Osgood, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

• Determinants of Decoupling and Friend-Shoring of Japanese MNCs in China - Timothy Cichanowicz, University of Kansas; Jiakun Zhang, University of Kansas

• Returning Home: Explaining the Location Choice of US Firms' Reshoring Projects - Ka Zeng, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Jialu Li, Harvard University

• Currency Power Dynamics during the Green Transition - Ryan M. Weldzius, Villanova University; Joshua Zion Buckson

Chair

• Benjamin A.T. Graham University of Southern California

Discussant

• Iain Osgood University of Michigan, Ann Arbor