The allure of autarky

[Celerity]

Liberal thinkers are shocked that nations are once again isolating from the world. The real surprise would be if they didn’t

https://aeon.co/essays/isolationism-isnt-new-and-is-fuelled-by-deep-human-desires


Illustration of New Jerusalem as described in Revelation 21:21 from the manuscript The Apocalypse of Margaret of York, c1475. Photo by Alamy



A great wave of desire for more self-sufficiency is sweeping over the planet. Donald Trump has declared the ‘economic independence’ of the United States and seems to be trying to excise the US from the global trading system his country has so painstakingly built since the Second World War – a system that has delivered considerable economic benefits for nations across the planet.

And the US president is far from alone in wanting to turn his nation inwards and rely less on other countries when it comes to imports of goods and raw materials. China’s president Xi Jinping has, for many years, been advocating zili gengsheng for China, which translates as ‘self-reliance’. In pursuit of this, Beijing has been discouraging imports and trying to enhance Chinese domestic production of everything from food to computer chips.

Others have followed this path too. ‘Russia is a self-sufficient country in every sense of the word,’ boasted Vladimir Putin last year, dismissing the impact of the avalanche of Western trade sanctions that swept over the country in 2022 and sought to turn it into an economic pariah. The Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has adopted a slogan of atmanirbhar bharat, or ‘self-reliant India’, for what is now the most populous nation in the world. Even the traditionally outward-facing European Union has begun exploring how the bloc can achieve greater economic autonomy in areas ranging from energy to defence.

This exaltation of self-sufficiency and the downgrading of the value of trading links amounts to a profound break from the orthodoxy of globalisation – the idea that ever-greater interconnections between nations through trade would enhance the security and prosperity of all. Yet, though it might feel like a very modern departure, this impulse to face inward, and for nations to cast off the shackles of interconnection and dependence, is not new. In fact, it’s ancient.

snip

[marble falls]

1. It is a cyclical behavior.