Uneven regional development in a contentious world of changing global production networks
Chips war’ and the geopolitics of semiconductor production in the United States and Southeast Asia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7166274 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Henry Wai-Chung Yeung (0000-0002-0647-0658) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-12-31 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Regional Studies Regional Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2168-1376 • E-ISSN: 2168-1376 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/21681376.2025.2600174 |
| OpenAlex | W7124171822 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 56 |
Since the late 2010s, the global economy has been confronted with immense challenges – from geopolitical tensions and climate change to the COVID-19 pandemic, territorial wars, trade conflicts and so on. While the unfettered economic globalisation of the 1990s and the 2000s might be over, a renewed interest in the global shift of industrial production (back to developed countries and their allies) has now preoccupied the policy priorities of many state authorities and regional institutions. In this context of a contentious world of production, the changing industrial organisation of economies activities has become one of the most disruptive forces shaping regional development. This paper first explores conceptually this recent change in relation to three important extra-regional processes that might shape the diverse trajectories of regional evolution and development beyond the mid-2020s: (1) policy regimes ‘elsewhere’; (2) the changing dynamics of strategic coupling; and (3) demand-led market shifts. It then offers some empirical illustrations through examining the so-called ‘chips war’ via state-led industrial policy and the reshoring of semiconductor production from Northeast Asia to the United States and Western Europe and new sites in Southeast Asia and their implications for respective host regions at the sub-national scale. My overall contention is that such a reactive political response to economic (over)globalisation is not necessarily a positive solution to addressing uneven regional development. There are likely unintended consequences of industrial policy that might exacerbate, rather than mitigate, uneven regional development
Geopolitics · Globalization · Industrial policy · Politics · Regional Integration · Unintended consequences · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · Global trade and economics · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
Global Production Networks
Asia in Japan's Embrace
Regional development in the global economy
A search dilemma for market niches
Geopolitics and the changing landscape of global value chains and competition in the global semiconductor industry
Japan as Number One Lessons for America
Global value chains from an evolutionary economic geography perspective
Semiconductor and ICT Industrial Policy in the US and EU
A Chip War Made in Germany? US Techno‐Dependencies, China Chokepoints, and the German Semiconductor Industry
Chinese perspectives on the US-China rivalry
Globalizing development in Bolivia? Alternative networks and value-capture challenges in the wood products industry
Beyond strategic coupling
Separate Worlds? Explaining the current wave of regional economic polarization
Global production networks
Institutional Escape and Embeddedness in the Cross-border Production Networks
The Resurgence of Regional Economies, Ten Years Later
Rescaling
Method in relational-explanatory geography
China’s defence semiconductor industrial base in an age of globalisation
An evolutionary approach to regional studies on global value chains
Varieties of extra-regional relations and local agency
From regional to global and back again? A future agenda for regional evolution and (de)globalised production networks in regional studies
Factories or Warehouses? A Welsh Perspective on Japanese Transplant Manufacturing
Regional Development and the Competitive Dynamics of Global Production Networks
Globalizing’ regional development
Troubling economic geography
Glocalization” and Regional Headquarters
Global Production Networks, Relational Proximity, and the Sociospatial Dynamics of Market Internationalization in Bolivia's Wood Products Sector
The Geographies of Just-in-Time
Cross-Network Weaponization in the Semiconductor Supply Chain
The US–China Chip War, Economy–Security Nexus, and Asia
Explaining Geographic Shifts of Chip Making toward East Asia and Market Dynamics in Semiconductor Global Production Networks
Foreign Direct Investment and the Flying Geese Model
Comparing transnational production systems
High-Technology Restructuring in the USA and Japan
The Changing Geography of Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in Manufacturing Industry
Networks, Keiretsu, and Locations of the Japanese Electronics Industry in Asia
The trouble with global production networks
From Production Systems to Learning Systems
Regional Creative Destruction
Business Networks and Transnational Corporations
The Globalization of Japanese R&D
The Role of Intermediaries in Foreign Direct Investment of Small and Medium-Sized Multinational Enterprises
The New Geography of Automobile Production
Toward a Dynamic Theory of Global Production Networks
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 4 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |