The New Age of Autarky?

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Are we entering a new era of national economic self-reliance? Ben Chu investigates.

Ben Chu asks why nations are turning away from globalisation and seeking self-sufficiency.

The UK is seeking energy independence. The US wants its microchips to be 'made in America'. China is targeting self-sufficiency in food. India wants technological 'self-reliance'. Is this a new age of autarky?

The concept of autarky originated in ancient Greece, where it was both a philosophical ideal and a practical goal of statecraft in a hostile and treacherous world. The autarkic lure has persisted down the centuries since: in modern times autarky has been adopted as an aspiration by left-wing and right-wing movements, by communist and fascist regimes, and by empires and anti-imperialists.

Ben Chu, economics editor of BBC Newsnight, charts the rise of modern autarky while also asking: is there something in our human make-up that keeps drawing us back to autarky's promise of security, control and self-sufficiency?

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The New Age of Autarky?: The Future of Autarky

The Future of Autarky

BBC Radio 4 - The New Age of Autarky?, The Future of Autarky

Whatever its economic merits, we seem to be living through an “autarkic turn” in national policymaking as the dream of globalisation sours. The shocks and anxieties spawned by the coronavirus pandemic, the Ukraine war, and the intensifying geopolitical struggle between China and the US, means many governments - from the US, to India, to China, to the UK, to the European Union - are seeking to boost national production of things like silicon microchips, food and medicines. And the climate crisis is creating an urgent new drive for energy independence, in the form of renewable power. 

So what will this new age of autarky - if that’s what it is  - feel like? In this final episode, Ben Chu, economics editor of BBC Newsnight, speaks to experts around the world, and visits a solar farm near Warminster, Wiltshire, to investigate the viability of energy autarky for the UK.

With contributions from:

Josh Stratton, managing partner of JM Stratton & Co farm
Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy
Siddharth Mayur, CEO of H2E Power
Huiyao Wang, president of Center for China and Globalization, a think tank in China
Brad DeLong, economist and author of ‘Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century’
Journalist Cindy Yu

Presenter: Ben Chu
Producer: Anouk Millet
Editor: Craig Templeton Smith
A Tempo & Talker production for BBC Radio 4

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