For nearly a century, America has provided the world a simple narrative: “If you’re with us, you get international rule of law. If not, you have to deal with arbitrary exercise of power.” Obviously, to most nations the latter proposition is untenable.
Only under a multilateral rules-based system can lesser states stand toe to toe and resolve disputes on equal footing with great powers: In this view the right choice — an American-centered world order — is clear. But both America’s own international conduct and academic scholarship suggest the increasing hollowness of this narrative.
What forces will now shape the international system? Is disorder the only logical outcome with the breakdown of our current world order? This lecture suggests how an economic marketplace model for great power competition can help answer these questions, and guide thinking for constructing a world order that works for all the international community.
Danny Quah (@DannyQuah ) is Li Ka Shing Professor in Economics and Dean at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. His research interests include income inequality, economic growth, and international economic relations. Quah's current research takes an economic approach to world order - with focus on global power shift and the rise of the east, and alternative models of global power relations. Quah is Commissioner on the Spence-Stiglitz Commission on Global Economic Transformation; Member, Executive Committee, International Economic Association; and Senior Fellow, Asian Bureau of Finance and Economics Research.
Michael Cox is Director of LSE IDEAS and Emeritus Professor of International Relations at LSE. In addition, he is currently working on a history of LSE. He helped establish the Cold War Studies Centre in 2004 and expand it into IDEAS, a foreign policy centre based at the LSE which aims to bring the academic and policy words together, in 2008.
Twitter hashtags for this event: #LSEFestival #NewWorldDisorders
This event is part of the LSE Festival: New World (Dis)Orders running from Monday 25 February to Saturday 2 March 2019, with a series of events exploring how social science can tackle global problems.
Podcast & Video
A podcast and video of this event are available to download from A Marketplace for World Order.
Podcasts and videos of many LSE events can be found at the LSE Public Lectures and Events: podcasts and videos channel.