Globalization is not just a policy choice — it is driven by technological progress that makes distance increasingly irrelevant. Container shipping cut transport costs by 90%. The internet enabled instant global communication.

Each wave deepened integration: telegraph cables linked financial markets across oceans in the 1860s, jet aircraft made international travel routine in the 1960s, and cloud computing now lets teams collaborate across continents in real time.

That is why deglobalization is so hard. You cannot uninvent the technologies that make global trade efficient, so even countries trying to decouple keep getting pulled back toward integration.