Global Trade

Global trade is of vital interest to citizens as well as policymakers, yet it is widely misunderstood. This compact exposition of the market forces underlying international commerce addresses both of these concerned groups, as well as the needs of students and scholars. Although it contains no equations, it is almost mathematical in its elegance, precision, and power of expression. Understanding Global Trade provides a thorough explanation of what shapes the international organization of production and distribution and the resulting trade flows.

Guy Stanton was a burly London gangster with a big reputation. For years he operated at the top of the drugs trade, moving huge shipments around the world. He knew the leading players in global organized crime, from wealthy Asian warlords and Turkish heroin barons to British cannabis crews and Colombian cocaine cartels.

Trade disputes are usually understood as conflicts between countries with competing national interests, but as Matthew C. Klein and Michael Pettis show in this book, they are often the unexpected result of domestic political choices to serve the interests of the rich at the expense of workers and ordinary retirees. Klein and Pettis trace the origins of today's trade wars to decisions made by politicians and business leaders in China, Europe, and the United States over the past 30 years.

We may think of "globalism" as a recent development but its origins date back to the fifteenth century and beyond, when seafarers pioneered routes across the oceans with the objectives of exploration, trade, and profit. These voyages only became possible after certain technical innovations—improvements in ship design, compasses, and mapping—enabled navigation across unprecedented distances.

The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is a critically acclaimed narrative that illuminates the globalization debates and reveals the key factors to success in global business. Tracing a T-shirt's life story from a Texas cotton field to a Chinese factory and back to a US storefront before arriving at the used clothing market in Africa, the book uncovers the political and economic forces at work in the global economy.

The $500 Billion Pivot outlines a bold vision for transforming India and the United States into strategic economic and geopolitical allies. It argues that a $500 billion trade partnership can serve as the foundation for reshaping global supply chains, countering authoritarian influence, and fostering inclusive, democratic growth. The book explores sectoral opportunities—from AI and semiconductors to clean energy and defense—while emphasizing the reforms India must undertake and the investments the U.S. must make.

In Straight Talk on Trade, Dani Rodrik, an early and outspoken critic of economic globalization taken too far, goes beyond the populist backlash and offers a more reasoned explanation for why our elites' and technocrats' obsession with hyper-globalization made it more difficult for nations to achieve legitimate economic and social objectives at home: economic prosperity, financial stability, and equity.

In the Shadow of the Red-Light is a hybrid literary work that blurs the boundary between documentary and fiction, cinema and novel, testimony and narrative. Set across the trafficking corridors of South Asia, from poverty-stricken villages in Bangladesh to the brothels of Mumbai, from Nepal’s theatre stage to the brutal sale of virgins in India’s red-light underworld, from Colombo's fragile dreams to Pakistan's underground pornography rings, the novel traces the interwoven fates of women and children lured, sold, and trapped within the global sex trade.

In The Age of Intoxication, Benjamin Breen offers a window into a time when drugs were not yet separated into categories - illicit and licit, recreational and medicinal, modern and traditional - and there was no barrier between the drug dealer and the pharmacist.

Most global citizens are well aware of the explosive growth of the Chinese economy. Indeed, China has famously become the "workshop of the world." Yet, while China watchers have shed much light on the country's internal dynamics - China's politics, its vast social changes, and its economic development - few have focused on how this increasingly powerful nation has become more active and assertive throughout the world.

Rethinking Trade calls for a bold overhaul of the global trade system to make it just, inclusive, and sustainable. It critiques outdated structures rooted in post–World War II institutions and proposes a new architecture grounded in equity, climate action, and digital access. The book outlines reforms like a multipolar currency system, tiered trade rules for development equity, enforceable labor and climate standards, democratized dispute resolution, and the use of emerging technologies for transparency and inclusion.

A behind-the-scenes look at the powerful courts that decide when international trade is legal or not. Does their rise mark a huge boon for corporations to challenge the power of sovereign nation-states? International trade deals have become vastly complex documents, seeking to govern everything...

Here eminent food historian Jeffrey M. Pilcher narrates the brewing traditions and contemporary production of beer across Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, and Latin America—from the fermented beverages of precapitalist societies to the present. Unique local products, often homebrewed by women, were transformed into homogenous global commodities as giant brewing factories exported their beers using new refrigeration technology, railroads, and steamships.

The history of the ancient incense trade routes often falls victim to the excitement of the stories of important men and women, as well as the conquest and empire building that constantly changed the organization of the ancient world. Yet the importance of these interlocking trade networks and the economies built around them cannot be denied. Ancient sources clearly delineate the immense demand for frankincense and myrrh, and later other spices and exotic products, that spanned for over a millennium, peaking between the fourth century BCE and the second century CE.