Economic integration and globalisation, the free flow of trade, with the United States at the helm: that is the economic order the world has known for decades. Today, the disintegration of the rules-based old world order is evident. Countries are becoming more inward-looking, regulatory fences have been erected, the World Trade Organization is in limbo, nations are racing to build industries of the future and trade restrictions are increasingly being imposed. The system that has governed the global economy since World War II is at a tipping point. Who will shape the rules of the future? The US, China or BRICS?