To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
During the global crisis of the 1930s and 1940s, many Americans came to believe their place in world affairs had fundamentally and permanently been altered. What is often forgotten is how the labors of the League of Nations, along with a network of committed internationalists, laid foundations for these views. Such was the importance of seemingly prosaic technical work done by the League on health, communication, and, most of all, economics that, at the start of World War II, vital parts of the institution were evacuated to the United States to work in exile in Princeton, New Jersey. This seminar explores this network and its considerable impact on the perceptions and policies that shaped a postwar order.
Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.