Redefining American Leadership for an Internationalized Era

Abstract

Not since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 has the international system been so upended. Waves of economic and political populism have threatened the bulwarks of the existing global order and questioned the stability of the institutions that have guided the world since the end of World War II. The European Union (EU), still grappling with the economic fallout of the 2008 financial crisis, has been dealt a stinging blow by the United Kingdom’s recent decision to withdraw. Across Europe and the United States, fears of economic decline and loss of jobs to globalization have empowered populist isolationism, nationalist politics, and protectionist economics, while free trade deals, both old and new, sputter. For the United States to remain a global leader and to secure a safe and prosperous future, we must look beyond our isolationist and protectionist instincts to a grander vision: a US that is better equipped to take care of its own citizens, and compete in a more cooperative, globalizing world.