Reactions to the coronavirus pandemic have escalated the pre-existing tensions between the US and China and among different Western nations. Confrontations between political globalists and mercantilist nationalists – between supporters of the rules-based international order and proponents of overt protectionism – are fueling ever-stronger international resentments.

Coupling argumentative rigour with a pragmatic, plainspoken approach, Phil Mullan charts a novel, democratic way past dangerous and self-defeating confrontations towards a future of open international collaboration based on popular participation within nation states. With its clear-eyed assessment of the opportunities and challenges of a more interconnected world – an assessment in which the economic internationalisation underpinning globalisation theories is neither romanticised nor vilified – Beyond Confrontation sets a judicious tone for the big geopolitical themes of our times.