This thought-provoking collection of essays, looking at the prospects and challenges for the next decade, could hardly be more timely. As 2009 drew to a close, the scale of the collapse in world trade in that year was alarming.

It is rare for the value of global trade to decline at all. Yet in the first half of 2009, it was a third lower than in the same period the previous year. There has been nothing like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the downward spiral of trade contributed to the political instability of that decade.

Historical parallels are not exact, and there are features of the modern global economy which help explain the sensitivity of international trade to recession. However, it is important not to forget the inevitable links between what happens in the economic and political spheres. This is after all what motivates the mission of the ICC to act as the ‘merchant of peace through world trade’.

There are two characteristics of the world economy of today which have made the recent collapse in trade flows so severe.

The first is the way supply chains in many sectors now operate across national borders. Not only high-technology products such as mobile phones but even shoes and clothing are manufactured in a global network.