Jake Werner

In recent years, opinion in Washington has hardened on the question of whether China poses a threat to the US-dominated liberal international order. US policymakers increasingly interpret Chinese economic statecraft as an attack on the ideals of a neutral market framework and a “level playing field” in economic competition, calling for confrontational measures to save the system. On Wednesday, May 5, Jake Werner will argue that this approach reads present-day tensions back into recent history and, in the process, effaces new possibilities for resolving today’s conflicts. China’s vision of global economic governance is not external to the liberal international order but emerged from China’s particular position within it. Werner will argue that historicizing the shift over the last decade from convergence to divergence among actors within the system is essential to rethinking globalization’s possible futures.