Abstract
Amid rising geopolitical uncertainty, the fragmentation of international rule-based systems, and the growing systemic vulnerability of global supply chains, the world economy is transitioning from a phase of “hyper-globalization” centered on efficiency maximization toward a new stage of “slow globalization” characterized by fragmentation, regionalization, and security prioritization, posing fundamental challenges to traditional economic geography frameworks that explain spatial division of labor and factor allocation. From a review perspective, this article systematically synthesizes the major theoretical advances and core debates in economic geography under conditions of globalization retreat, highlighting a shift from an emphasis on local–global “strategic coupling” within global production networks (GPNs) toward increasing attention to mechanisms of spatial reorganization driven by strategic decoupling, institutional frictions, geopolitical risks, and the “weaponization” of global value chains, thereby revealing the structural tensions among efficiency, resilience, and security and their profound implications for firm location choices and regional development. Building on this synthesis, the paper compares the economic-geographical logics of supply chain reconfiguration pathways such as nearshoring, friend-shoring, and reshoring, elucidating the multiscalar co-evolutionary processes among the blockization of global value chains, the resurgence of national strategic autonomy, and the adaptive restructuring of local industrial systems. It further assesses the amplifying and compounding effects of digital and green transitions on reshaping spatial divisions of labor, as well as their potential to intensify the “re-marginalization” of certain regions. This review aims to develop an integrated analytical framework that bridges geopolitical considerations and economic rationality, deepening systematic understanding of the logics of economic geographical restructuring, pathways of spatial governance, and future research agendas in the era of globalization retreat, while providing theoretical foundations and policy insights for fostering regional resilience and interpreting the emerging global economic geographical order under conditions of heightened uncertainty.
