Shaking the Global Order in the Age of Trump Podcast Series

This podcast interview with Danny Bradlow is the accompanying podcast to Danny's article, "Lessons from the Frontlines: What I Learned from My Participation in the G20". This article is the first in a series of examinations of former officials and others who have been directly involved in the workings of global summitry. The 'Summit Dialogue' series is intended to give us insights into how current global summitry actually makes, or fails to make, policy at the global governance level. Danny was the first head of the South African Reserve Bank’s (SARB) International Economic Relations and Policy Department. In this capacity, Danny represented the SARB in G20 and BRICS meetings during approximately two years ending in October 2014.  Enjoy both the article and the podcast.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 2: Danny Bradlow on South Africa's Participation in the G20

It was with great pleasure that I welcomed into the virtual studio John J. Mearsheimer. John is one of the leading exponents of the School of Realism in international relations. With his book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, published in 2001, John described and elaborated the foreign policy theory and practice of “Offensive Realism”.

John has been a persistent critic of U.S. foreign policy critics and their creation and elaboration of the liberal international order. His critique has been fully argued in his two most recent works: the book The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities, published in 2018 and his recent extended article in International Security, “Bound to Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Liberal International Order”.

John has taught international relations for many years at the University of Chicago. He has made quite a name for himself in his works on Realism in international relations. I was very excited to get John into the studio so we could get John to discuss the Liberal Order and get his views on American foreign policy in the ‘Age of Trump’.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 26: John J. Mearsheimer on "Offensive Realism" in Foreign Policy

The spread of Covid-19 across the globe dominates policy making everywhere. States have responded in a variety of ways; the consequences for these states are varying population spread and death tolls.  Though the virus began in China some of the most serious consequences have been felt in Europe particularly in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. 

It was my pleasure to invite into the virtual studio Torrey Taussig. I was particularly keen to discuss with her the efforts of the EU 27 and the European Commission to adopt collective European efforts to combat the virus. Torrey was with us at our virtual conference at Boston University in March hosted by the Global Development Policy Center (#GDP). There we launched the China-West Dialogue to discuss the future of global governance in the context of Covid-19 and other challenges, such as climate change. The virtual workshop was well attended and featured a keynote introduction by The Right Honourable Paul Martin. The former Canadian Prime Minister called on the #G20 to tackle climate change and the pandemic, noting that now is not the time to forsake multilateralism.

Torrey is currently a non-resident fellow in the Foreign Policy Program’s Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings. She is also a research director of the Belfer Center at the Harvard Kennedy School. Torrey focuses her research attention on U.S. foreign policy as well as European and Asian security issues.

Join us in our discussion on the European response to Covid-19.

‘Now', Ep.19: Torrey Taussig on Europe’s Response to Covid-19

As most international relations specialists would agree, the most consequential relationship now, and for the foreseeable future in the global order, is that between China and the West. There is a growing rivalry between China and the United States, and the rising tensions raises difficult global order questions for all the actors in the international system. 

Kerry Brown is one of a number of China and international relations experts that have joined the Vision20 principals to examine the future of global order in the face of a growing tension between the two leading states in the international system, the United States and China. 

The Vision20 principals, Colin Bradford, Brookings and Yves Tiberghien, UBC and myself here at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto launched the China and the West Dialogue (CWD) this spring, and with the support of Kevin Gallagher from Boston University, we planned our first workshop. The meeting became virtual, of course, with the pandemic and this initial workshop was joined with experts and former officials from Latin America, the United States, Canada, the UK and Europe. 

The results of the meeting including identification of the participants and CWD statements that emerged can be found at the Global Development Policy (GDP) Center at Boston University (http://www.bu.edu/gdp/cwd/). Many of the experts that joined us at the BU virtual meeting also prepared Background Notes. All these Notes can be found at the CWD site at the Global Summitry Project website. 

The Vision20 principals also planned to gather experts at the 4th annual Global Solutions Summit in Berlin. That too turned into a virtual gathering. Several CWD participants prepared video presentations. These video presentations can be found at the GSS 2020 theme, the ‘Future of Multilateralism and Global Governance’ where Colin Bradford provided the keynote and the panel included Chen Dongxiao, President of SIIS in Shanghai, Susan Thornton, Senior Fellow and Research Scholar at Yale Law School Paul Tsai Center and Kerry Brown, Lau China Institute, King’s College London spoke on: ‘How is it Possible to avoid the emergence of another bipolar competitive era’.

As noted, Kerry was one of the video panelists. I was keen to bring Kerry back into the virtual studio (You can listen to Kerry Brown’s earlier podcast, Ep 28 ‘Shaking the Global Order’) to discuss his Background Note from the BU meeting and his panel appearance at the GSS. I wanted to dig further into his view that the global governance system was evolving to a ‘dual architecture’ or a ‘dual track world’ with ‘two different operating systems’. What are the implications of all this for US-China relations and indeed global governance relations?

Kerry Brown is currently Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute, Kings College London. Before that 2012-2015 Kerry was Professor of Chinese Politics and Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Kerry has served in both the public and the academic sectors. From 1998 to 2005, he worked at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, and then as Head of the Indonesia, Philippine and East Timor Section. 

Kerry has written a great deal about Chinese politics and its foreign policy. Probably his most well-known study is China's Dream: The Culture of Chinese Communism and the Secret Sources of Its Power.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 29: Kerry Brown on 'Dual Architecture' in Global Governance

It was a great pleasure to invite Scott Kennedy into the virtual studio to discuss China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) just recently concluded. There decisions were announced on Hong Kong, with respect to the Chinese economy. These decisions formed the most recent backdrop to the rising tensions between Beijing and the current Trump Administration. In the light of earlier podcast episodes here at Global Summitry (these podcast episodes can be found at iTunes and at Spotify) with Kerry Brown (Ep. 28 and 29) on Xi Jinping’s China, we wanted to get Scott’s take on China and the US-China tensions. 

Scott is the Senior Advisor and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business & Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Scott focuses on Chinese economic policy including industrial policy, technology innovation, business lobbying, US-China commercial relations and global governance. 

Scott has written extensively on China including his CSIS study ‘China’s risky drive into new energy vehicles’, and he has edited among other books, Global governance and China: The dragon’s learning curve. 
Before coming to Washington, Scott was a professor at Indiana University (IU), where he established the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business and was the founding academic director of IU’s China Office.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 30: Scott Kennedy on China-US Relations and Hong Kong

It was a great pleasure to welcome both colleagues into the virtual studio to discuss the rising tensions in China-US relations and consequences for the liberal order. We began this discussion – Part 1 of Episode 31 - with the efforts of Colin and Yves to initiate a ‘China-West’ Dialogue (CWD). This effort has brought together experts and former officials from around the globe seeking pathways to ameliorating China-US relations and suggesting a policy of ‘strategic engagement’ as opposed to ‘strategic competition’ or what some Democratic colleagues describe as ‘competition without catastrophe’.

Colin is a Non-resident Senior Fellow of the Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution. Colin a specialist on global governance and the G20, He has edited Global Leadership in Transition (2010) and Global Governance Reform (2007). As a co-chair of Vision20 (V20) since 2016, Colin has convened annual events with Brookings to encourage longer term strategic thinking for the future. 

Yves Tiberghien (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2002 and Harvard Academy Scholar 2006) is a Professor of Political Science, Faculty Associate in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He has published many articles and book chapters on Japan and China’s political economy, on global governance, global climate change politics, and on the governance of agricultural biotechnology. Yves founded the V20 group in 2015, a new coalition of global scholars and policy-makers aiming at providing a long-term perspective on the challenges of global economic and environmental governance. 

Colin along with Yves and Alan Alexandroff initiated the ‘China-West Dialogue’ (CWD) holding virtual workshops at Boston University GDP Center and at the Global Solutions Summit (GSS) in Berlin. Research from both events can be found here at Boston University and here at the GSS site All the research notes from experts at the BU workshop can be found here at the Global Summitry Project website at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 31-1: Colin Bradford and Yves Tiberghien on China-US Relations

It was a great pleasure to welcome back both colleagues into the virtual studio to continue our discussion on the rising tensions in China-US relations it causes and its consequences for the liberal order. While Part 1 of this Episode 31 focused more the ‘China-West’ Dialogue (CWD) Project, this podcast cast a more critical light on the rising tensions between these two leading powers and other powers in the international system exploring in particular what could be down to avoid this growing rivalry. 

As a reminder, Colin is a Non-resident Senior Fellow of the Global Economy and Development Program, Brookings Institution. Colin a specialist on global governance and the G20, He has edited Global Leadership in Transition (2010) and Global Governance Reform (2007). As a co-chair of Vision20 (V20) since 2016, Colin has convened annual events with Brookings to encourage longer term strategic thinking for the future. 

Yves Tiberghien (Ph.D. Stanford University, 2002 and Harvard Academy Scholar 2006) is a Professor of Political Science, Faculty Associate in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC). He has published many articles and book chapters on Japan and China’s political economy, on global governance, global climate change politics, and on the governance of agricultural biotechnology. Yves founded the V20 group in 2015, a new coalition of global scholars and policy-makers aiming at providing a long-term perspective on the challenges of global economic and environmental governance.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 31-2: Colin Bradford and Yves Tiberghien on China-US Relations

Hal Brands is a contemporary historian that explores the current global order. He has focused, among other things, on the rising tensions and competition between China and the United States. With Jake Sullivan, a former Obama official and a non-resident senior fellow in Carnegie’s Geoeconomics and Strategy Program, they wrote an intriguing examination in Foreign Policy of the possible paths to global domination by China – “China has two paths to Global Domination.”I explore with Hal this article and ‘dig into’ current Trump foreign policy, especially towards China. Come join us for this global order conversation.

Hal Brands is an American historian. Currently, he is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 32: Hal Brands on China's 'Domination' & US-China Competition

Join Professor Alan Alexandroff as he interviews fellow academics, policymakers, and former officials about global governance and the contemporary global order.

Shaking the Global Order, Ep. 26: John J. Mearsheimer on "Offensive Realism" in Foreign Policy

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