Before the 17th century, trade across Eurasia was mostly conducted in short segments along the Silk Route and Indian Ocean. Business was organized in family firms, merchant networks, and state-owned enterprises, and dominated by Chinese, Indian, and Arabic traders. Around 1600 the first two joint-stock corporations, the English and Dutch East India Companies, were established. In his book Going the Distance, Ron Harris of Tel-Aviv University tells the story of overland and maritime trade without Europeans, of European Cape Route trade without corporations, and of how large-scale, impersonal organizations arose in Europe to control long-distance trade for more than three centuries. In this webinar, Harris shares his insights into the history behind a cornerstone of the modern economy, and how this organizational revolution contributed to the formation of global trade and the creation of the business corporation as a key factor in Europe’s economic rise.

International politics has shifted from unipolarity to bipolarity. This is accompanied by rising China-US strategic rivalry fueled by incompatible visions of international governance. Meanwhile, social discontent is widespread around the world, which stems from unequal distribution of globalization’s costs and benefits. These two trends are reducing the prospects for global security and prosperity, leaving countries to fend for themselves in an increasingly polarized state-centric order. In this AsiaGlobal Paper, Professor David Arase of the John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies discusses the potential impact of these developments on the future of the Indo-Pacific region.

As the pandemic continues to ravage the world, what policy responses should African governments take to secure livelihoods and economic recovery while containing the virus? Besides debt relief from the World Bank and other multilateral institutions, what else could be done to provide the fiscal space to help African countries survive and thrive in the post-pandemic world? How do geopolitics, particularly the US-China strategic competition, affect Africa’s fight against the pandemic? AsiaGlobal Fellows Charity Amayaenvbo (Nigeria), George Lwanda (South Africa), Clayton Hazvinei Vhumbunu (Zimbabwe) and Kadidia Konare (Mali) offer on-the-ground insights into Africa’s Covid-19 responses.

The international order created under the auspices of “American hegemony” appears to be unraveling during the erratic and nationalistic leadership of Donald Trump, and the growing geopolitical and geo-economic competition between the US and China. In this AsiaGlobal Paper, Mark Beeson of the University of Western Australia analyzes these developments by putting them in historical context, considering what was distinctive about the “rise of the West” and explaining why the relative decline of American influence may prove so consequential.