A New Quest for Self-Reliance: East Asia and Indian Economic Nationalism

Since 2017, India has introduced an increasing number of protectionist economic policies including higher tariffs, import duties and production subsidies while also rejecting and reviewing free trade agreements and imposing new regulations on foreign companies. This paper seeks to make sense of India’s recent foreign economic policies and their potential impact on its relations with East Asia. It does so by analyzing the economic, political and geopolitical drivers of these policy changes and placing their emergence within a broader historical context. It is argued that India is entering a new period of “neo-mercantilist” economic nationalism that simultaneously seeks to protect and nurture industries while attracting foreign investment and integrating India into global value chains. This is the outcome of the consequences of “liberal” economic nationalist policies and a changing geopolitical environment — including a broader global impetus toward neo-mercantilist policies and conflict with China. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified this pre-existing turn toward neo-mercantilism. India’s new economic nationalism has the potential to produce significant changes in India’s relations with East Asia but also faces significant challenges in its implementation in the post-COVID era.

The resurgence of nationalism and its implications for supply chain risk management

PurposeThis paper examines nationalism as a driver of political risk and how it can lead to supply chain disruptions for foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs).Design/methodology/approachConceptual research based on a review of the literature on nationalism and supply chain risk management.FindingsThis research unveils how economic nationalism could engender supply chain disruptions via discriminatory practices toward all foreign MNEs and how national animosity may generate additional risks for the MNEs of nations in conflict with one another. These discriminatory practices include an array of host government and grassroots actions targeting foreign MNEs. While economic nationalism and national animosity emanate from within a host country, they may stimulate geopolitical crises outside the host country and thereby affect the international supply chains of foreign MNEs.Research limitations/implicationsThis research lays the foundation for analytical and empirical researchers to integrate key elements of nationalism into their studies and recommends propositions and datasets to study these notions.Practical implicationsThis study shows the implications that nationalist drivers of supply chain disruptions have for foreign MNEs and thus can help managers to proactively mitigate such disruptions.Originality/valueThis study reveals the importance of integrating notions of national identity and national history in supply chain research, since they play a key role in the emergence of policies and events responsible for supply chain disruptions.

Economic Nationalism and Its Vitality in India

Nationalism is a close link of three components, which are economic, political, and social nationalism. Although economic nationalism focuses on encouraging domestic consumption, adopting protection policies, and restricting imports, the final concerns of the nation are still territory and power. India, which has many competitive advantages but also faces a lot of obstacles on the development path, maintains economic nationalism in many different forms from M. Gandhi to N. Modi’s time. In the era of globalization and modernization, economic nationalism has remained persistent and has become an ideological system to help build a sustainable and stable economy. The article focuses on three main contents: (1) Overview of economic nationalism, (2) economic nationalism in India and as it has grown in the past, and (3) economic nationalism in India as it stands today and in the future. Received 25th September 2020; Revised 2nd January 2021; Accepted 20th February 2021