Time:2010/6/7

G. John Ikenberry, Professor in Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, visited CISS on June 2, 2010 to speak to students and faculty about the foreign policy of US President Barack Obama and the future of the “liberal order”. Ikenberry is a leading “liberal institutionalist” international relations theorist in the US and the author of a number of major studies, including After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars (2001) and Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the 21st Century (2009). 

Ikenberry began by saying that Obama is the first president of the “post-Vietnam generation” and differs from his predecessors because he is Asia-centric in his perception of the world rather than rooted in transatlantic traditions. Whilst his presidency therefore offers potential for a “new beginning” in US foreign policy, there remain many holdover issues from the previous administration – notably budgetary restraints – that will constrain any transformative impulses. 

Reflecting those constraints, Obama’s foreign policy vision, according to Ikenberry, is one of “pragmatic internationalism”. Drawing on realist and liberal strategies, the Obama administration aims to rebuild the post-1945 international order to better reflect 21st century priorities and a changing distribution of power. Although this vision is premised on continued US global leadership, Obama wants to work with other great powers, particularly China and Russia, to develop a “multipartner” framework in which international burdens are evenly shared. 

Ikenberry was supportive of these goals, noting that the post-1945 order, built around the principles of free trade, multilateralism, security cooperation and US power, consisted of much that was valuable and worth retaining. He was skeptical of claims that the liberal order would be dismantled by the emergence of a divide between “western democratic” states and “eastern authoritarianism”, possibly under an increasingly powerful China. Today’s rising powers, he argued, were status quo states that wanted to integrate with the existing international order and reform it from the inside rather than look to overthrow it. Key trends – notably the rise of “security interdependence” – acted as powerful incentives for inter-state cooperation. 

He nevertheless stressed that the Obama presidency represents a “window of opportunity” for remaking the liberal international order. Should Obama not succeed, Ikenberry predicted that the US would become increasingly inward in its politics and less willing to offer global leadership. 

Ikenberry followed his lecture by answering questions about US policy towards China, the existence (or not) of a “China model” and the future shape of East Asia’s regional order.