JDI x PSIA Trade Rounds: the old normal, or why trade wars are here to stay

Is the current state of global trade a 'new normal', or a return to historical patterns? Mercantilism and trade conflict have been the default setting of great power relations, in the ancient empires as much as in today's rivalry between China and the United States. As trade restrictions are increasingly justified on national security grounds, the present situation may make more sense when read against that long record than against the political cycles of just the past few decades.

Join us for a fireside chat with Craig VanGrasstek, trade historian, author of On Trade War (Cambridge University Press, 2026) and of the WTO's official history, who has taught trade policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. We will discuss the forces at work in the global economic order, the competition between China and the United States, and what both mean for the multilateral trading system.

The discussion will be moderated by Nicolas Köhler-Suzuki, Adviser for Trade and Economic Security at the Jacques Delors Institute, and will close with a Q&A.

This event is part of the JDI x PSIA Trade Rounds series

Trade Rounds is a debate series dedicated to the major challenges of international trade policy, jointly organised by the Jacques Delors Institute and Sciences Po’s Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA). Bringing together researchers, policymakers, negotiators and private sector representatives, it provides a space for open dialogue on the transformations reshaping global trade. Open to the public and held several times a year, these discussions aim to enrich the debate on the challenges shaping the future of international trade relations.