The COVID-19 pandemic and the trend of increasing authoritarianism over the last decade had an unprecedented impact on the global economy and the real estate industry. The pandemic forced businesses to rethink operations, and authoritarian governments may threaten long-standing economic relationships. As a result, many are focusing on reshoring, near-shoring, and friend-shoring to reduce their dependence on offshore operations. This shift has significant implications for the real estate industry. Our session will first explore the interconnectedness of global economies and explore the concept of friend-shoring and its connection to regional development banks. Dr. Tina Zappile will first provide an overview of how recent shocks and changes to the global economic system have impacted regionalism in trade, investment, and development. She will expound upon this topic to highlight the pressures multi-national corporations (MNC’s) have faced and how they have diversified supply chains to reduce risk. Monty Turner will explain how countries have marketed their labor and real estate arbitrage opportunities to reduce risk via tax and incentive policies. Finally, Rafael McCadden and Juan Gallardo will highlight the opportunities and challenges created by the shift towards reshoring and near-shoring, and the subsequent impacts of this movement on both companies approach to strategic planning, using an end-user case study to illustrate real-world decisions. Ron Zappile will facilitate a debate between the panelists on the arguments for and against re-shoring, near-shoring, and friend-shoring and why companies would choose one over the other.