ABSTRACT
As in previous editions, this final chapter is intended to pull together the record of economic diplomacy, as expounded throughout the book, and to look ahead. It will not offer detailed forecasts. Economic diplomacy constantly changes in unpredictable ways. Like others, we had not foreseen the worst financial and economic crisis for 80 years, which began to take hold in 2007. That crisis introduced a turbulent period in the world economy, which still persists a decade later. The system has not yet regained a durable equilibrium, so that forecasting remains more than usually hazardous. Even so, our aim will be to pick out some of the dominant trends, favourable and unfavourable, which have emerged in the new economic diplomacy over the last two decades and appear to be taking root.
