Globalization in a broader sense and economic globalization in a more restricted sense has been under strain for some years now. During this time, rising anti-globalization sentiments, the U.S.-China trade war, and the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The spread of the pandemic quickly from country to country with a span of only a few months has been facilitated by globalization itself (in terms of greater mobility of people through improved travel, tourism, and other forms of people movement). This article focuses on the current trend in globalization as it is being severely strained and tested by several events such as the rising nationalism, U.S.-China Trade war, Covid-19 pandemic, and several other stressors which are discussed in the paper. The paper concludes with the optimistic note that the Covid-19 pandemic may be controlled with the arrival of the vaccine, the world economy will recover, and the current strains on globalization lifted so that the progress to globalization will soon return to a somewhat normal path.
