History has evidenced a boom in globalisation when the world became a global village and now it is evidencing its retraction. The baby boomers where were at the forefront when economies started becoming interdependent on each other. While the millennials reaped benefits of it, they are also seeing a reversal in this. While the roots of globalisation can be traced back to as far as when Christopher Columbus discovered America when he was was searching for spices or when Vasco da Gama discovered India, others chimed in only when colonization ended and they became independent countries. India also jumped in the bandwagon in 1992 when it made the historical LPG Act.
However, the trend has lately started shifting. All this started after the great depression of 2008 when policy makers around the world tried to make policies to safeguard their countries from any such future tragedies. what this great mishap taught the world is that when you are interdependent on many countries, you are not just affected by the good things that happened in there but also by the bad things that happened there. Thus came the urge to make one's country financially and otherwise independent of others. This trend only took pace with the increasing popularity of Trump. The same Trump which wanted America first. Rather than focusing on equal opportunities for all, he decided to emphasize on giving jobs to Americans first. After all, they are the ones who get to decide the president of America. He won the heart of blue collar workers at the cost of immigrants. But why does it matter? After all, he did become the President. He withdrew America from the the Paris agreement which he alleged gave an unequal importance to countries like India and China, thus increasing the rivalry. He made the world see India and China as rivals of America rather than of it's allys which provide raw materials and support services to it.
There is no doubt that this pandemic has given a thrust to deglobalisation. Earlier power supply chains with very stretched. From cosmetics of South Korea to fresh fruits of Brazil, you use to get everything in your nearby supermarket. Then, economy started shutting down to protect themselves from the virus. Many even banned the export of essential items that medical equipments and medicines fearing insufficient supply in their own markets. this has most countries at the receiving end to look for better alternatives. Alternatives in which they don't have to depend on other economies in this era where alliances are uncertain and international cooperation is absent.
A burning example for this would be countries cancelling tiktok because of it's headquarters in China. Sure there are security reasons for this but security reasons is in itself a main reason for a global shift in trend. For a more recent example you can take EU thinking of banning Facebook because of its headquarters in the US.
Countries or now standing at an infliction point. Sure there are two roads diverged in a yellow wood, sure one of the two will be taken and sure, the one not taken will make all the difference.