Beyond New York, London, and Shanghai: How the geography of competitiveness is changing

Global value chain hubs

In other words, position matters: those “at the center” of the network have more opportunities for exchange, more interactions, and more control over overall flows. Applied to the geography of the global economy, this theory explains well why New York, London, and Shanghai have emerged as dominant hubs. These metropolises are not only located at the vertices of the three macro-regions that have taken shape with globalization (North America, Europe, East Asia), but they also enjoy a topologically privileged position: 

• New York connects North America with Europe and serves as the global financial epicenter. 

• London hosts European finance and acts as a platform for advanced services to emerging African and Middle Eastern markets. 

• Shanghai is the gateway to Asian manufacturing and the main junction between global production and consumption. 

“Centrality” is therefore not only geographical but also functional: these cities concentrate infrastructure, institutions, and human capital that ensure what, in network terms, is called high betweenness centrality — that is, how often a node lies on the shortest path connecting any two other nodes, or its ability to mediate global flows. Without them, the paths of international finance, knowledge, and trade would become longer, costlier, and less predictable. 

In recent years, however, the world network has lost some of its homogeneity. The probability of interaction among nodes — the ease with which capital, goods, people, and data move — is no longer uniform. Geopolitical tensions, trade wars, technological barriers, and sanctions have created more regionalized “sub-networks,” denser within themselves (as global trade in absolute terms has not declined) but more weakly connected to one another (trade among large blocs has diminished). 

Returning to network theory, when a network fragments, the nodes that become central are no longer those at the center of the global system, but those located on the boundaries between two (or more) highly integrated internal networks. In other words, new centrality emerges at the margins — at the contact points where connections can still pass through. These are the bridging nodes — boundary nodes that link partially disconnected areas. 

Looking at today’s global map, which cities embody these characteristics? The selection relies on a few structural indicators: capital attractiveness, ability to retain talent, demographic growth, and a role as an interface between regions. Based on these indicators, the cities emerging as competitive hubs in the new globalization could be: 

• Singapore, the capital of Asian efficiency, both a logistics and digital hub. In the past three years, the net migration balance of highly skilled workers has grown by +9% annually (source: Singapore Department of Statistics), fueling the boom in sectors such as fintech and biotech. 

• Dubai, the service and re-export platform linking Asia, Europe, and Africa. Between 2020 and 2023, foreign residents with medium-high incomes grew by +15% (Dubai Statistics Center). 

• Texas, which is less a single city and more a regional platform connecting the North American market (NAFTA/USMCA) with the Latin American production network — increasingly interlinked through nearshoring — with over 1 million new residents between 2020 and 2023 (U.S. Census Bureau), a +20% increase in new high-tech and industrial business registrations (Texas Economic Development 2024), and strong growth in foreign direct investment flows, driven by the energy transition, the semiconductor industry, and the revival of advanced manufacturing. 

Closer to home, we can think of Casablanca, now Africa’s financial gateway to Europe, where the number of international firms registered in the Casablanca Finance City has increased by +40% since 2021 (CFC Authority, 2024). And of course Milan, which combines advanced manufacturing and financial services, playing the role of “bridge” between Europe’s industrial North and the Mediterranean, with a +22% rise in foreign direct investment in the Lombardy region between 2021 and 2024 (EY Attractiveness Survey). 

In network theory terms, all these cities exhibit potentially high edge betweenness: they manage the few but crucial links that still connect the major regional networks. Their strength lies not in internal density but in their ability to mediate — to turn fragmentation into opportunity. 

To maintain this role as bridging nodes, in a world where the global network is no longer homogeneous and competitiveness is shifting from the center to the boundaries, another resource is required: knowledge. In today’s economy, the areas that thrive are not only those that connect capital, technologies, and goods, but also those that generate and transmit knowledge in original and creative ways. In the age of AI, the stock, attraction, and creation of human capital consolidate the role of cognitive hub — a new form of centrality and competitiveness. 

Indeed, this seems to be confirmed by Singapore and Dubai, and by the growing production of knowledge they have achieved in recent years through the development and attraction of academic institutions and centers of research excellence. But let us not forget Milan, which still has strong cards to play in this game. 

The new globalization will therefore not have a few dominant nodes at the center, but many intelligent nodes at the margins. And in this new geography of value, the winners will be those places that can turn their boundary position into a platform for knowledge and cooperation.