A Place for the U.S.?
The Future of American Leadership in a “World Without the West”
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Is the balance of global power slipping away from the U.S. and its European allies?
Learn More About:Flynt Leverett
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On April 17th, New America Foundation and the University of California Washington Center hosted a panel discussion featuring Flynt Leverett, Fred Kempe, Steven Weber, and Nicholas Gvosdev.
Weber, director of the UC Berkeley Institute for International Studies, described how developing countries such as China and Russia have been able to avoid both assimilation into the current Western international system and military conflict with the U.S. by constructing a set of relationships and institutions that sidestep the current world order, what he has termed a ‘World Without the West’. This system derives its power from control of energy and commodity supplies and raw manufacturing power, not from mastery of technological expertise or the ‘Knowledge Economy’.
Weber then highlighted the tenuous hold of both Western thought and U.S. dominance in the current international system including: frustration in the developing world with the ability of democracy to deliver prosperity and wellbeing as well as the relatively shallow penetration that many western economic and political concepts have achieved in societies throughout the developing world.
Leverett, senior fellow at The New America Foundation, argued that control of commodities and scarce energy reserves will be the defining paradigm in the global economy for years to come. Increased energy demand throughout the developing world and a tight supply have created a structural shift in global energy markets that has rendered past boom-bust cycles obsolete for the foreseeable future. One notable structural shift constraining supply is that 80% of oil reserves are owned by governments as opposed to multinational private corporations. As a result, market forces do not play a role in inducing additional productive capacity.
He also pointed to institutions and relationships that have accompanied the growth of the ‘World Without the West.’ Multilateral institutions such as the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization” have begun to compete with traditional multilateral organizations for regional influence. These developments are part of the larger phenomenon of the developing world “soft balancing” U.S. power.
Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, discussed the emerging multi-polarity in the world system and called for increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Europe. He cited the Euro-American bloc as the only effective counterweight to the ‘World Without the West’, noting the close economic and cultural links that make the two regions natural allies.
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Weber, director of the UC Berkeley Institute for International Studies, described how developing countries such as China and Russia have been able to avoid both assimilation into the current Western international system and military conflict with the U.S. by constructing a set of relationships and institutions that sidestep the current world order, what he has termed a ‘World Without the West’. This system derives its power from control of energy and commodity supplies and raw manufacturing power, not from mastery of technological expertise or the ‘Knowledge Economy’.
Weber then highlighted the tenuous hold of both Western thought and U.S. dominance in the current international system including: frustration in the developing world with the ability of democracy to deliver prosperity and wellbeing as well as the relatively shallow penetration that many western economic and political concepts have achieved in societies throughout the developing world.
Leverett, senior fellow at The New America Foundation, argued that control of commodities and scarce energy reserves will be the defining paradigm in the global economy for years to come. Increased energy demand throughout the developing world and a tight supply have created a structural shift in global energy markets that has rendered past boom-bust cycles obsolete for the foreseeable future. One notable structural shift constraining supply is that 80% of oil reserves are owned by governments as opposed to multinational private corporations. As a result, market forces do not play a role in inducing additional productive capacity.
He also pointed to institutions and relationships that have accompanied the growth of the ‘World Without the West.’ Multilateral institutions such as the “Shanghai Cooperation Organization” have begun to compete with traditional multilateral organizations for regional influence. These developments are part of the larger phenomenon of the developing world “soft balancing” U.S. power.
Kempe, president and CEO of the Atlantic Council, discussed the emerging multi-polarity in the world system and called for increasing cooperation between the U.S. and Europe. He cited the Euro-American bloc as the only effective counterweight to the ‘World Without the West’, noting the close economic and cultural links that make the two regions natural allies.
-Ian McAllister, Intern for the American Strategy Program
04/17/2008 - 12:00pm
04/17/2008 - 2:00pm
University of California Washington Center, Room AB
1608 Rhode Island Ave, NW
Washington, 20036United States
Participants
- Flyntt Leverett
Senior Fellow
New America Foundation
- Fred Kempe
President and CEO
Atlantic Council
- Steven Weber
Director, Institute of International Studies
University of California, Berkeley
- Nicholas Gvosdev
Editor
National Interest Magazine
