March 31: Political Purpose and Foreign Policy - The Particular Case of Responding to the Rise of China.

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Politics does not stop at our national borders. It also deals with the exercise of power and the distribution of resources in the world. Specially it deals with the basis of power, military, economic and moral. It deals with who uses that power and how they use it. It deals with whether this power is used unilaterally, or whether it is constrained by the rules of the international "order." And it poses the core question of what sort of world do I want to see through my country's influence on the world on poverty and the economy, on social justice, on the environment, and on security. Or do I believe, as some international scholars do, that there can be no moral purpose for states in the world, and that it's purely about the maximization of my state's interests. These questions become particularly stark when we ask what will happen when china replaces the United States as the world's largest economy. The questions we ask ourselves, therefore, about our political purpose in foreign policy, could profitably be tested against how we should respond to the rise of China, the biggest potential global game-changer in your lifetimes. Suggested Readings: Again you are welcome to disembowel the following contributions. My address to Peking University on how to deal with China. My Morrison Lecture on "Neither Conflict Nor Kowtow: a Third Way of Engaging China" And also my recent article in Foreign Affairs Magazine entitled "A New Roadmap for US-China Relations."

***All study groups are off-the-record and not for media coverage***