Tariffs and trade barriers are rising and major diplomatic institutions that have promoted liberal trade for decades have come under attack as impending trade wars threaten global trade and global value chains for manufacturing weaken. And at the root of this crisis, argues Geoff Pigman, is accelerating technological change.

This book traces the impact of today’s major technological transformations on global trade and the diplomacy that makes trade possible. Not only is global trade changing, in terms of what is traded and how, but diplomacy in the digital age is changing as well. Arguing that we must think differently about trade and diplomacy, this book proposes pragmatic policy approaches for the diplomatic management of a challenging and potentially dangerous future.

1. Crises in trade and diplomacy
2. Digital is making us rethink global trade
3. Technological transformation, the global economy and capitalism
4. Diplomacy and trade in an age of humans and intelligent machines
5. Big Government meets Big Tech: states, firms and diplomacy
6. Policy proposals for a human future
7. How soon is now?