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
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"Constitutional morality is the fulcrum which acts as an essential check upon the high functionaries and citizens alike…"In view of the above observation of the Supreme Court, explain the concept of constitutional morality and its application to ensure balance between judicial independence and judicial accountability in India.
Next question in the 2025 paper (Q11). View answer →
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Is globalisation over?
As a political faith, it is weaker. As cargo, data and students, it continues under thicker State conditions.
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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.
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