A few years ago, there was an overarching global consensus on trade: the freer, the better. Only nerdy economists spent much time agonizing over the details of trade policy, and special-interest groups were pretty much alone in advocating protections. Overall, tariffs were relatively low, most governments sought to attract foreign investment, and technology transfers were viewed as a way to spread prosperity. Not anymore.Thirty-five years after the military strategist Edward N. Luttwak coined the term “geoeconomics” to describe when the “logic of conflict” meets the “grammar of commerce,” the concept is gaining new resonance. There is a growing consensus in many countries that trade policy should be viewed mainly through the lens of geopolitics.
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