The Doom Loop – Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling into Disorder
By: Eswar S. Prasad – Cornell University
The United States is no longer the world’s undisputed superpower. China and India increasingly flex their economic muscle, as the West’s share of global GDP steadily declines—and America’s rules-based system risks becoming irrelevant. In business, competition brings efficiency, balance, and innovation. But not in the marketplace for global power.
Acclaimed economist Eswar S. Prasad argues that the very forces expected to stabilize the world order are fueling disarray. Globalization has deepened inequality in many countries, stoked political backlash and triggered trade wars. Economic institutions like the IMF and WTO are no longer fit for purpose. The rise of “middle powers” like South Africa, Brazil, and Indonesia once suggested multipolar stability; but today, such economies are forced to pick sides in the intensifying US–China struggle for hegemony.
Prasad’s clear-eyed, bracing prose contends that we are caught in a destructive feedback loop between economics, domestic politics, and geopolitics. With instability the new status quo, we need radical solutions to reinvigorate the world economy, prioritize common aspirations—and halt the downward spiral.
Long Problems: Climate Change and the Challenge of Governing Across Time
By: Thomas Hale – University of Oxford
In this pathbreaking book, Thomas Hale examines the politics of climate change and other “long problems.” He shows why we find it hard to act before a problem’s effects are felt, why our future interests carry little weight in current debates, and why our institutions struggle to balance durability and adaptability. With long-term goals in mind, he outlines strategies for tilting the politics and policies of climate change toward better outcomes.
Globalization “widened” political problems across national boundaries and changed our understanding of politics and governance. Hale argues that we must make a similar shift to understand the “lengthening” of problems across time. He describes tools and strategies that can, under certain conditions, allow policymakers to anticipate future needs and risks, make interventions that get ahead of problems, shift time horizons, adapt to changing circumstances, and set forward-looking goals that endure. As the climate changes, politics must, too. Efforts to solve long-term problems—not only climate change but other issues as well, including technology governance and demographic shifts—can also be a catalyst for a broader institutional transformation oriented toward the long term. With Long Problems, Hale offers an essential guide to governing across time.
Can Democracy and Capitalism Be Reconciled?
Edited by: Sidney M. Milkis and Scott C. Miller – University of Virginia
In Can Capitalism and Democracy Be Reconciled?, Sidney M. Milkis and Scott C. Miller have gathered a truly eminent cast of contributors to provide a multidisciplinary examination at the intersection of capitalist economies and democratic political systems across time and space. Featuring twenty-four essays from scholars across nine different academic fields, the volume interrogates the ideas, history, and policy behind these two pillars of liberal society.
The volume begins with an introduction that explores the vibrant historical debate over whether democracy and capitalism can and should coexist in America. The contributors, further examining the United States and comparable countries, conclude that democracy and capitalism can be reconciled; at the same time, many recognize that the relationship is fragile and urge systemic changes that might sustain democratic capitalism in the future. The core thematic sections begin with an examination of the foundational yet fluid meaning of democracy and capitalism and consider the inherent tensions in reconciling them.
China’s Weaponization of Trade – Resistance Through Collective Resilience
By: Victor D. Cha, Ellen Kim, and Andy Lim – Georgetown University, Korea Economic Institute of America, Center for Strategic and International Studies
In recent years, China and the United States have each turned economic interdependence into an instrument of coercion, using their dominant positions in international trade to push states and firms to comply with their political goals. What is distinctive about this form of economic pressure, and how can other countries fight back?
This groundbreaking book explores the weaponization of economic interdependence and its implications for the international order through a wealth of new and original data on China’s economic statecraft. Victor D. Cha, Ellen Kim, and Andy Lim examine how and in what ways the United States and China have deployed economic coercion, focusing on China’s extensive use of this tactic over the past three decades. They analyze a vast data set that includes more than 600 cases of China’s economic bullying of states, companies, and individuals in North America, Asia, and Europe. Cha, Kim, and Lim propose a multilateral strategy of “collective resilience” to counter intimidation, showing how targeted states can band together, leverage trading relationships, and threaten retaliation.
