Free Trade and the US–China Trade War: A Network Perspective

This book provides an analysis of the global trading system and its implications. The author uses network theory to examine the sustainability of the free trade system and its future. The book attempts to find out what the future of free trade could be and how the global trading system would unfold. The book assesses four main waves of challenges to free trade and open society: the COVID-19 pandemic, the US–China trade war, economic nationalism, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. While some of these challenges have been casting their shadows on the global economic system for some time, others are relatively novel, and their full effects are yet to be seen. This book also looks at the challenges they would present to multilateralism and global trade development. This book will interest those who wish to have a better understanding of the US–China trade war and the challenges to the global trading system.