Active Management

A New Era of Globalisation: Shifting Opportunities in a Dual-Track World

Mar 26,2025

PGIM’s latest megatrends research argues that the world has entered a new era of globalisation, splintering into two distinct and separate tracks.

In national elections around the world, one theme dominated almost universally: dissatisfaction with a global economy that favours others over us.

On the surface, swirling headlines around tariffs and fracturing supply chains would suggest the high-speed globalisation train has been utterly derailed. However, the world has entered a new era where globalisation has essentially splintered into two distinct tracks.
 

  • Track 1: A narrow set of industries deemed to be of vital national security or strategic importance, from energy to semiconductors and AI. This track of globalisation has sharply decelerated, if not come to a sputtering halt altogether.
     
  • Track 2: A vast array of cross-border goods and services such as apparel and consumer electronics, gets less attention in sensationalist media stories but still represents a majority of global GDP.


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