Just as nations have interests more than they have friends, so governments have lobbies more than they have principles. From a purely abstract standpoint James may be right. I hope so. But if the intellectual commitment of the political classes is all that lies between us and de-globalization, we are by no means completely out of the wood. Economic history suggests that more than good intentions may be needed to preserve globalization from the countervailing forces it provokes.

Eric Jones is a professorial fellow at Melbourne Business School in Australia and a professor at the Graduate Centre of International Business at Reading University in the UK.