‘In business schools, we usually do not teach geopolitics,” says Cedomir Nestorovic, a professor and executive MBA academic director at Essec Business School in Singapore. But in an era of unprecedented geopolitical volatility, in which the settled assumptions, and many of the institutions, of the postwar global order are being undermined, that may have to change.

The accumulation of challenges to the normal rules of engagement in international commerce and political economy can seem bewildering. Just consider the events of a single week before Christmas.

Ken Hu, chief executive of Chinese telecoms group Huawei, attacked the US and its allies for sowing suspicions about the company’s equipment because of “ideological or geopolitical concerns”. Meanwhile, the price of American soyabeans plunged as the volume of purchases from China fell, throwing into doubt the “truce” that US president Donald Trump had declared in his trade war with Beijing.