The national interest: politics after globalisation

Are the politics of national interest making a comeback in the multipolar world after the end of globalisation? What is the national interest and why did it get forgotten at the end of the 20th century? Does the idea offer a way out of the impasse afflicting politics in the 21st century?

Since the USA under Donald Trump turned to pursuing an openly ‘America First’ agenda in trade and foreign policy, and his Secretary of State recognised that we are now living in a multipolar world, everyone else has been forced to start thinking about their own country’s national interest. This is however an unfamiliar way of thinking about politics. During the previous 30 years of globalisation, the idea of the national interest fell into disuse. Politics was organised around global questions of trade and financial markets, human rights and climate change, democratisation and the War on Terror. National identities were displaced by cultural, religious or personal identities, national interests by international agreements and global governance regimes.

Our panel of three experts will discuss whether there really is such a thing as the national interest, whether it really is back, who decides what it is, and what effects thinking in terms of national interest may have on politics both within individual states and between them.