Industrial Strategy reborn: global trends, tensions and trajectories

The last few years have seen the re-emergence of Industrial strategy - combining public investment, sectoral targeting, strategic trade and procurement, and place-based policies - in western economies. Industrial policies have returned to the forefront of policy discourse as governments respond to the questions over the resilience of global supply chains (‘securonomics’), attempt to decouple from dependence upon China for manufacturing (and rebuild domestic capacities), and crucially to secure control over the technologies underpinning the digital and green transitions – all while also trying to alleviate domestic regional disparities.

In this regard, the verisimilitude of the objectives and instruments of an industrial strategy is critical. A credible industrial strategy, that is realistic in its outlook is one in which state interventions (in a market economy) are based upon theoretical foundations, have clear objectives, and can be implemented through a coordinated, long-term approach with sufficient public funding, and buy-in from private firms and workers and actors from all sides of the political divide.

This Double Special Issue explores these and related issues through a collection of 15 papers and commentaries that build upon recent research on Industrial Strategy from various dimensions and international contexts. In so doing, this Special Issue provides a broad set of perspectives on the many facets of industrial strategy, including theoretical perspectives, reflections on industrial strategy experiences (from across the globe), analysis and debate over contemporary industrial strategy issues across economies, the politics of industrial strategy and ‘state of the art’ reflections on new forms of industrial strategy.