Revision summary
Post-Cold War hyper-globalisation has waned: WTO strain, export controls, vaccine nationalism, and war. Sovereign nationalism is industrial policy, data and energy security, and minilateral clubs of States. Interdependence continues under political licence, not as a religion of efficiency. India’s PLI, strategic oil and DPI diplomacy sit inside this shift. Climate and pandemics still require more than one flag.
Model answer
Introduction
The post-Cold War years sold a story of open markets, thinning borders and one institutional kit (WTO, capital mobility, supply chains). That story has waned. States have not gone home to 1950. They have put the sovereign back in the shop window: tariffs, industrial policy, energy nationalism, and war. The world is a site of sovereign nationalism in the sense that the State again claims the last word over the chain.
Body
What waned
Hyper-globalisation after 1991 assumed that efficiency would discipline politics. WTO dispute settlement is crippled. Brexit, America First and export controls on chips and green tech turned trade into security. COVID-19 showed vaccine nationalism, then a partial correction. Ukraine and Red Sea attacks showed that grain, gas and containers still have flags. Migration politics in Europe and the US thickened borders even as capital stayed mobile. This is not the 1990s brochure.
Sovereign nationalism
Sovereign nationalism here is not only ethnic populism. It is friend-shoring, critical minerals, data localisation, Atmanirbhar and IRA-style subsidies. China never left the sovereign-developmental State. Others have copied the mood. BRICS expansion and minilateral clubs (Quad, I2U2, IMEC) are coalitions of sovereignties, not a world government. The UN is busy and blocked — which is the next 15-marker’s terrain.
Interdependence remains in semiconductors, oil and climate. Nationalism decides who is allowed to be interdependent with whom.
India
India liberalised without becoming a small open economy. It now speaks strategic autonomy: Russian oil, US technology, Gulf capital, African votes. PLI schemes, digital public infrastructure as diplomacy, and caution at the WTO on agriculture are sovereign tools. They can slide into protection that hurts consumers. The elucidation is complete only if one adds: climate and pandemics still ignore passports, so a world of only sovereign nationalism will fail those tests.
The post-Cold War site is therefore a marketplace with walls, not a museum of autarky.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD G[1990s open kit] --> W[Waning] W --> S[Sovereign industrial border war] S --> I[Selective interdependence] IN[India] --> I
Conclusion
Globalisation as an ideology has waned; supply chains and data still cross borders. Sovereign nationalism sets the terms of those crossings. India is a player in that mood, not a spectator, and still needs clubs for climate and health that no single flag can run.
Quick related
Students also ask
-
What are environmental pressure groups? Discuss their role in raising awareness, influencing policies and advocating for environmental protection in India.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2025 · Q15). View answer →
-
Is globalisation over?
As a political faith, it is weaker. As cargo, data and students, it continues under thicker State conditions.
-
Is Atmanirbhar the same as isolation?
Officially it is capacity at home plus selective trade. In practice each tariff must be judged on whether it builds capacity or only rents.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
-
2025 · Q2 · GS II · 10 marks
Comment on the need of administrative tribunals as compared to the court system. Assess the impact of the recent tribunal reforms through rationalization of tribunals made in 2021. -
2025 · Q4 · GS II · 10 marks
Discuss the nature of Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly after the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019. Briefly describe the powers and functions of the Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. -
2025 · Q6 · GS II · 10 marks
Women's social capital complements in advancing empowerment and gender equity. Explain. -
2025 · Q15 · GS II · 15 marks
What are environmental pressure groups? Discuss their role in raising awareness, influencing policies and advocating for environmental protection in India. -
2025 · Q17 · GS II · 15 marks
"In contemporary development models, decision-making and problem-solving responsibilities are not located close to the source of information and execution defeating the objectives of development." Critically evaluate. -
2025 · Q18 · GS II · 15 marks
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has to address the challenges faced by children in the digital era. Examine the existing policies and suggest measures the Commission can initiate to tackle the issue. -
2024 · Q4 · GS II · 10 marks
"The duty of the Comptroller and Auditor General is not merely to ensure the legality of expenditure but also its propriety." Comment. -
2024 · Q5 · GS II · 10 marks
Analyse the role of local bodies in providing good governance at local level and bring out the pros and cons of merging the rural local bodies with the urban local bodies.
More from this topic
Q18 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS II · 15 marks
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has to address the challenges faced by children in the digital era. Examine the existing policies and suggest measures the Commission can initiate to tackle the issue.
Governance and Policy
Harms: grooming, bullying, addictive design, data profiling, deepfakes, influencer labour, and exclusion without devices. Law: POCSO, IT rules, JJ Act, DPDP 2023 parental consent, NEP caution on ed-tech. NCPCR can inquire, recommend and move courts under the 2005 Act. Measures: age-assurance, school device rules with offline equity, POCSO e-evidence protocol, ed-tech data audits, 1098 integration, influencer-work codes, privacy-by-default for minors. The Commission should regulate design, not become a meme censor.
Q17 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS II · 15 marks
"In contemporary development models, decision-making and problem-solving responsibilities are not located close to the source of information and execution defeating the objectives of development." Critically evaluate.
Governance and Policy
The quote names a split: knowledge at the bottom, decisions at the top, execution in between. CSS, SPVs and parallel bodies bypass 73rd/74th institutions that the Constitution empowered. 2nd ARC and Punchhi already diagnosed fragmentation of the local State. The critique fits toilets, housing and MGNREGA planning; it fits less for vaccines, tax and defence. Repair: subsidiarity, untied local finance, elected control of SPVs, shared MIS with the Gram Sabha.
Q15 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS II · 15 marks
What are environmental pressure groups? Discuss their role in raising awareness, influencing policies and advocating for environmental protection in India.
Governance and Policy
Environmental pressure groups organise to change ecological decisions of State and firms. Awareness: Chipko, Silent Valley, CSE and climate networks. Policy: EPA, FRA, NGT, EIA contests, PESA and mining consent. Advocacy: Mehta cases, Godavarman, Niyamgiri, Narmada and later climate-rights litigation. Limits: urban bias versus FRA communities, science errors, FCRA chill; they are one constitutional voice, not the ministry.
Toppers' copies
Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.