Environment & Climate Change

Stephen Walt advises that in order to prepare students of public policy schools for a rapidly changing world, faculty should teach historical cases where the prevailing theories led to bad policy choices, and where new ones had to be devised to address a novel set of circumstances. 

Joseph S. Nye argues that history shows that globalization is largely driven by technological changes that reduce the importance of distance, and that will not change.

Joseph Nye  discusses the following: Why the United States must work with China on global issues such as climate change, pandemics, and other transnational concerns, despite rivalry between the two countries; the "three-dimensional chess game" between the U.S. and China, with military, economic, and ecological boards; the importance of soft power; and differences from the U.S. relationship with the Soviet Union.

During the Cold War, US grand strategy focused on containing the power of the Soviet Union. China's rise now requires America and its allies to develop a strategy that seeks not total victory over an existential threat, but rather managed competition that allows for both cooperation and rivalry within a rules-based system.

Joseph Nye explains why defending liberal interests is in the interest of the United States.

Joel Clement writes that the federal government must allow community voices to drive infrastructure investment  and conservation in the North.

Joseph Nye writes that with less preponderance and facing a more complex world, the United States must exercise power with as well as over others and use its soft power to attract their cooperation. To do that, the United States will have to rediscover the importance of the institutions Donald Trump's administration abandoned.

Pandemics are not always transformative events. While some worrying preexisting trends could accelerate, it’s incorrect to assume that the coronavirus will end globalization, kill liberal democracy, or enhance China’s soft power.

John P. Holdren and coauthors argue that the next presidential administration must renew its commitment to investing in science and technology regardless of who wins in November. The United States is facing a great host of challenges that underscore the urgent need for renewed investment in the science and technology enterprise and the rapid application of new scientific knowledge and advanced technology to solve complex problems.

Joseph Nye analyzes Trump's misguided approach to China  and concludes that it could lead the United States to discard its aces of alliances and global institutions or to severely restrict immigration. He advises that since the United States cannot solve problems like pandemics and climate change alone, Americans and its leaders must learn to distinguish power with others from power over others.