Asia’s Mixed Embrace of Industrial Policy

Global economic upheavals are fundamentally rewriting the standard Washington Consensus blueprint for development. For decades, the orthodox division of labor was clear: the state provided public inputs, macroeconomic stability, regulatory predictability, and basic infrastructure, while the private sector served as the engine of accumulation. Today, that boundary is blurring . Buffeted by geopolitical fragmentation, supply chain reconfigurations, and rapid automation, hyperactive industrial policy has returned to the global economic stage with an intensity not seen in half a century.