بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
The Disintegration of Supply Chains and the End of Globalization
(Translated)
https://www.al-waie.org/archives/article/20113
Ustadh Nabil Abdel Karim
Al Waie Magazine Issue No. 473
Thirty-Ninth Year, Jumada II 1447 AH corresponding to December 2025 CE
For decades, economic globalization has formed the general framework within which global trade operates. Production networks have expanded across continents, and factories, ports, and suppliers have been linked by complex supply chains stretching from East Asia to Europe and America.
Globalization is one of the most prominent phenomena that has shaped the features of the modern world. It has contributed to transforming the world into an interconnected arena, where countries and societies interact in an unprecedented way. It is not merely the transfer of goods or ideas across borders, but instead an integrated process encompassing economics, culture, politics, and technology. It affects the lifestyles of individuals, the production patterns of nations, and the balance of international power.
Although this term has gained prominence in recent decades, its historical roots extend back centuries, beginning with the great geographical discoveries and developing with the Industrial Revolution. However, it emerged in its current form after World War II, and accelerated with the telecommunications and internet revolution. Understanding the origins and development of globalization allows us to understand how the world has changed, but first, we will examine the difference between globalization before and after World War II.
Before World War II, globalization was commercial and colonial, linked to European colonial expansion. Major powers controlled colonies, exploited their resources, and established global trade networks that lacked international institutions. These networks were limited and unstable, relying on force rather than law. Trade routes were controlled by military force, technology had little impact, and the economy was centered around Europe, with the rest of the world either dependent or colonized.
After World War II, globalization became more organized through major international institutions, such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and later the World Trade Organization. Consequently, large multinational corporations emerged, operating in dozens of countries, such as Coca-Cola and Microsoft. Naturally, all these companies belong to the major powers that dominate the world, thus transforming Europe from a colonialist into a partner.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the rapid pace of technological development, the rise of multinational corporations, and digital globalization (global communication platforms, the flow of information, e-commerce, etc.), globalization has become more pervasive and influential in people's daily lives. Unfortunately, it has also become a major factor in current crises. For example, the excessive interconnectedness of the global economy has generated a single, interconnected network. While this has its advantages, it also means that even a small crisis can spread rapidly, as seen in the 2008 US mortgage crisis, the collapse of banks in Europe, and unemployment in Asia, among many others. This interconnectedness has made economic contagion extremely swift. The financial crisis spreads rapidly through the movement of capital, with billions of dollars crossing borders in minutes. This has led to financial markets no longer relying on real production, but instead on volatile speculations, facilitating sudden capital flight, currency collapses within a single day, and abrupt crashes in commodity and energy prices—all of which were impossible before globalization.
The excessive reliance on global supply chains has made the world extremely fragile, fragmenting it across countries: raw materials from one country, manufacturing in another, assembly in yet another, distribution by exclusive companies, and so on. This has led to a port closure in China causing shortages of goods in Europe, an energy crisis shutting down factories in Asia, and a war in Ukraine causing global food inflation.
Globalization has also generated an identity crisis and ideological conflicts through cinema, media, and the internet—all largely controlled by the same powers. New cultures and values have been imposed on societies with their own identities, disturbing and weakening those identities. The moral decline we see today is not accidental; it is the result of a complete system created by cultural and media globalization. This system promotes extreme individualism, freedom without religious or traditional limits, turns the human body into a commodity, and makes pleasure the main goal. This was designed by the West to dominate the world, through platforms such as Netflix, Hollywood, celebrity influencers, who all promote corruption and many platforms that turned pornography into a global industry, along with all social media platforms, and so on.
All of this has benefited the winners—rich countries, giant corporations, and financial centers—at the expense of poor countries, and the middle and lower classes worldwide. This has led to extremely deep social divisions.
This openness generated by globalization has caused serious imbalances that the world is suffering from today. The world has reached a situation where it serves the ambitions of a small faction that controls global power. Through globalization, they seek to generate a standardized human being—one with the same behavior and values, whose culture is consumption, who uses the same products, lives under one economic system (that of liberal capitalism), and follows a single “religion” of unlimited individual freedom. This system promotes moral decay, rejection of tradition and revealed scriptures, and separation of spiritual life from society.
Countries around the world have begun to recognize the effects of globalization on them. As a result, many states have started to re-evaluate globalization, especially after major crises such as the 2008 global financial crisis, the disruption of supply chains during COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, and geopolitical tensions between China and the United States, and between Russia and NATO.
Therefore, these countries have begun taking specific steps and building regional economic influence, such as ASEAN, BRICS in regional forms, and East African agreements. These regional blocs aim to provide faster transportation due to geographic closeness, greater security and political stability, and easier industrial integration.
We have also seen recently—during Trump’s final term—that large tariffs were imposed to limit trade globalization. There were efforts to move semiconductor industries from Asia to the United States and Mexico, to build supply chains for rare earth minerals, reduce dependence on China, and bring major companies back from Asia to the U.S. This was done by offering strong incentives for returning companies and imposing heavy barriers on foreign-made products. This shows that they believe the era of globalization is beginning to decline. Countries that want to escape this form of globalization must shift toward a regionalization, and focus on the following steps, briefly:
1. Implementing a protectionist policy for the country and its products.
2. Building food security at the national and regional levels.
3. Diversifying energy sources within the region.
4. Creating regional financial and monetary alliances.
These and other steps may help countries move away from globalization.
What will speed up the collapse and disappearance of globalization is one or more of the following: a major financial crisis hitting the international order, loss of trust in full globalization, and a shift toward regional alliances. This also includes strengthening regional economic and food security, reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar and distant supply chains, and forming a multipolar world system instead of a single global system.
Such developments are natural in the cycle of history and in the laws that govern struggle and change in the universe. After globalization reaches a very high peak, it enters a phase of regional contraction, then decline, followed by the rebuilding of a new balance.
Therefore, the return of Islam as an ideology, and a global leadership, is inevitable and near, Allah (swt) willing. We must work to hasten its arrival. Muslims everywhere must be aware that today presents a great opportunity due to these global changes and collapses. Despite the severe attacks on Muslim lands, this itself is evidence that the alternative solution lies within these lands and within their people, who carry a sound, divine belief that alone is fit to govern the world.
O Muslims, Allah (swt) has blessed us with abundant resources and a unique geographic position, and He has promised us even more if we establish His Shariah Law by resuming the Islamic way of life. Then the earth will bring forth its treasures, and the sky will send down its blessings. This reality was understood by the noble alim of Al-Azhar, mujtahid mutlaq, Taqi al-Din al-Nabhani (may Allah (swt) have mercy on him), who began by establishing Hizb ut Tahrir. Today, it is considered the only group working to restore the Islamic way of life based purely on the idea of Islam itself, without being contaminated by capitalist desires and tools.
Through the efforts of those who followed him, the Ummah’s project is now ready for implementation, down to its finest details. The Hizb’s members work day and night to seize the opportunity and to draw the attention of the people of military power. Allah willing, when Allah wills, they will be ready too.
So, sincere people of this Ummah, among the masses and the people of military power, support this path with this movement, so that together we may restore the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) to its true position and illuminate the world with the light of Islam. Allah (swt) says,
[يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّاسُ قَدۡ جَآءَكُم بُرۡهَٰنٞ مِّن رَّبِّكُمۡ وَأَنزَلۡنَآ إِلَيۡكُمۡ نُورٗا مُّبِينٗا ١٧٤ فَأَمَّا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱعۡتَصَمُواْ بِهِۦ فَسَيُدۡخِلُهُمۡ فِي رَحۡمَةٖ مِّنۡهُ وَفَضۡلٖ وَيَهۡدِيهِمۡ إِلَيۡهِ صِرَٰطٗا مُّسۡتَقِيمٗا]
“O humanity, clear evidence has come to you from your Lord, and a clear light has been sent down to you. (174) Those who believe in God and hold firmly to Him will be admitted into His mercy and favor, and He will guide them to a straight path” [TMQ Surah An-Nisā 174–175].