General
This overarching shift in the global political economy involves a partial break with free-market globalism and the renewed use of economic tools, such as trade restrictions, investment screening, and subsidies, to achieve geopolitical goals
What is the geoeconomic turn?
This mechanism prevents "carbon leakage" by ensuring a price is paid for the CO2 embedded in imports equivalent to the price paid by EU firms under their internal emissions trading scheme
What is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)?
This specific label applies when a country is the initiating actor in a geoeconomic dynamic, proving it has agency rather than being a mere rule-taker
What is sender?
This specific non-Western power is the only one to account for almost all relative gains in structural economic power over the past three decades, calling into question the "emancipatory" potential for the rest of the Global South
What is China?
This fruit-named tech giant illustrates the "offshoring" trend by employing only about 47,000 people in the US while relying on over 700,000 workers in other countries to make its products
What is Apple?
Abbreviated as IPCEIs, these cross-country industrial projects allow EU member states to give direct financial aid to firms working on strategic technologies like batteries and hydrogen
What are Important Projects of Common European Interest?
This is the only group of nations formally and explicitly excluded from the scope of the International Procurement Instrument (IPI)
Who are the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)?
This regional bloc used its "Democratic Clause" to suspend a member state in 2017, illustrating how Latin American countries use economic tools to protect political values
What is MERCOSUR (in the case of Venezuela)?
In terms of global financial structural power, this group holds over 90% of global central bank reserves and owns more than 85% of cross-border equity and debt claims.
Who is the West (or the US-led alliance)?
Susan Strange famously compared conventional International Relations scholars who ignore the power of corporations to these people who refuse to recognize the world is round
Who are "Flat Earthers"?
Contrary to the popular idea of "states vs. markets," this "realistic" analytical framework views states and multinational corporations as actors that are not necessarily subordinate to one another but instead compete, cooperate, and use each other to increase their relative power
What is the juxtaposition of states and firms?
This principle, which provides special rights or exemptions for developing nations, is almost entirely absent from the design of the EU’s new unilateral toolbox, with the exception of one specific procurement instrument
What is differential treatment?
This is the most frequent geoeconomic situation identified in the region, characterized by big powers offering "carrots" like FTAs and development finance to compete for long-term influence
What is an economic inducement strategy?
This type of power is defined as the ability to shape the frameworks of the global political economy within which other states and firms must operate, as opposed to just the capacity to produce goods
What is structural power?
In the world of economic statecraft, positive inducements like loans or trade preferences are called "carrots," while coercive tools like sanctions are known as these
What are "sticks"?
In the context of "Sino-capitalism," this Chinese term refers to the system of informal interpersonal networks and social connections used to conduct business and overcome institutional uncertainty
What is guanxi?
While competitiveness and security tools target rivals like the US and China, these specific EU instruments have the highest negative impact on developing countries because they target high-risk products and lack differential treatment
What are sustainability-related instruments (e.g., CBAM and Deforestation Regulation)?
Brazil’s 2021 law allowing for the suspension of trade obligations to deter others from blocking WTO dispute mechanisms is an example of this proactive, protective strategy
What is precautionary defensive economic statecraft?
Contrary to the concept of deglobalization, this term describes a geographical reconfiguration and re-routing of cross-border flows in response to geopolitical pressures, resulting in a gradual transformation of dependencies rather than a net decrease in interdependence
What is reglobalisation?
Highlighting the sheer scale of modern business, this American retail giant has higher annual revenues than the total tax collections of countries like Spain or Australia
What is Walmart?
This high-profile project was originally launched by France and Germany as a "moonshot" to create an autonomous European data infrastructure and reduce dependency on US tech giants
What is Gaia-X?
This critical trade-off suggests that the EU is increasingly prioritizing geostrategy and environmental goals over traditional development objectives, potentially undermining its own attractiveness as a partner for Global South countries
What is the sacrifice of development on the "altar of sustainability and geopolitics"?
In contrast to traditional theories that focus on market concentration, Zelicovich’s research reveals that these two subjective motivations are often more significant drivers for Latin American states when they initiate geoeconomic actions
What are political and ideological motivations?
This central tension exists because, while Western material output power (GDP and trade shares) is declining, its leverage over the infrastructures of global production and finance remains dominant, making the transition to a truly multiplex order far more conflictual than theory suggests
What is the disconnect between declining material output and persistent structural power?
To describe the deeply intertwined and integrated "hypereconomy" of the United States and China, Zachary Karabell coined this catchy, blended name
What is "Chimerica"?