-The return of American economic nationalism: the great leap backwards

The world is changing at a fast pace, with geopolitical and economic uncertainty posing serious challenges to global stability and prosperity. The centuries old debate that opposes mercantilism to liberalism is resurfacing after the post-Cold War optimism that saw globalization and full-scale free trade as unquestionable. In order to shed a light on the present and future of the global economic architecture, this thesis does not underestimate the importance of the past, focusing on three main areas of analysis that are, in several ways, intertwined: economics, geopolitics and history. This work proposes to study the international economic architecture, exploring with more depth the American approach on trade, from the late 19th century to the present day, based on case-studies such as President McKinley’s tariffs, the Smoot-Howley Tariff Act of 1930, the Great Depression and the Liberal International US-led Order that saw the creation of multilateral institutions such as the GATT – now WTO –, the IMF and the World Bank. This research, based on a blend of qualitative analysis with quantitative data, shows that the rise of American protectionism in the last decade is, de facto, a leap backwards in terms of trade architecture, discarding the post-war multilateral system in favour of unilateral or bilateral dynamics. But it is also true that opportunism, economic nationalism, and unilateral movements have been a reality throughout the history of American trade policy, even in those times where the Unites States were the great sponsor of the so-called Liberal International Order, now going through an evident crisis.