During the past two years, the world has experienced its deepest economic crisis since the 1930s. But – despite the fears of many experts – there has been no major outbreak of protectionism. Globalisation, the economic and political mega-trend of the past three decades, is still firmly in place.

However, when Barack Obama visited India recently, the US president warned his hosts that the debate about globalisation has re-opened in the west. The reasons for this are obvious. The western world has come out of the Great Recession in much worse shape than emerging powers. In the US, unemployment is still hovering close to 10 per cent. The European Union is faced with a rolling sovereign debt crisis and social unrest. The western powers can feel themselves losing economic and political strength, relative to the emerging world. Americans and Europeans are increasingly ill at ease with the “new world order” that emerged after the end of the cold war. As a consequence, a backlash against globalisation is forming – and it is likely to grow in strength.

“Globalisation” involves the erosion of national barriers to the free flow of goods, capital and people. That process has accelerated during the past 30 years, as international trade, cross-border investment and migration have all boomed. But the pressure to reimpose barriers in all three areas is now growing in advanced economies.