Global Summitry Podcasts

US-China relations during the Biden administration have been marked by competition and rivalry. Many of the aspects of US-China relations of the first Trump presidency were retained by the Biden administration. We have now returned to President Trump. What are we likely to see now in US foreign policy under a second Trump presidency; what will be US-China relations going forward? To explore all this I invited back into the Virtual Studio my good colleague Yves Tiberghien. Yves currently is a Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research, Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research, and Director of the Center for Japanese Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Yves recently completed a study leave and was a visiting scholar at the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science (2023-2024). Yves specializes in comparative political economy and international political economy with an empirical focus on China, Japan, and Korea. His latest book is The East Asian Covid-19 Paradox, August 2021. Come join Yves in the Virtual Studio to examine these issues.

It is with great pleasure that I continued the conversation with my colleague Yves Tiberghien for this episode on ‘Shaking the Global Order’. After a short break I continued the discussion with Yves as to the current state of relations with the US and China. I was also able to extend our examination to include the impact of this competition on the Middle Power countries in the Indo-Pacific. The discussion extended to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and others. Yves is a Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus of the Institute of Asian Research, Konwakai Chair in Japanese Research, and Director of the Center for Japanese Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. Yves recently completed a study leave and was a visiting scholar at the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science (2023-2024). Yves specializes in comparative political economy and international political economy with an empirical focus on China, Japan, and Korea. His latest book is "The East Asian Covid-19 Paradox" (August 2021) with work forthcoming on a new book titled "Game-Changer: How Covid-19 Has Reshaped Societies and Politics in East Asia". So, let’s rejoin Yves in the Virtual Studio in this examination of US-China relations and its impact on the Indo-Pacific.

It is with pleasure that I was able to invite my colleague Gregory T Chin into the Virtual Studio to discuss all matters related to the BRICS+. Greg has been an observer of the BRICS for some time, and its main institutional creation the New Development Bank (NDB). I was keen to explore the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa now that it has extended membership to Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Where is the BRICS+ headed in this evolving geopolitical environment? And I wanted to explore with Greg the major BRICS institution, the NDB, and what the BRICS+ hopes to accomplish with this Multilateral Development Bank (MDB). Gregory T Chin is an Associate Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics, and Faculty of Graduate Studies at York University (Canada), with a focus on China, Asia, the BRICS, global governance, and the political economy of international money and finance. He is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow of the Global China Initiative at Boston University's Global Development Policy Center, and of the Foreign Policy Institute at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Prior to joining York University in 2007, he was First Secretary (Development) at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing 2003-2006. He handled strategic policy engagement with decision-makers in China, government agencies, key Chinese think tanks, and liaised with diplomatic representatives of other countries, the major multilateral development banks and international organizations, and private international foundations and donors. His recent publications include: an "Introduction - The Evolution of New Development Bank", "Bangladesh and New Development Bank", and "US Financial Statecraft and China" (published in Italian by Istituto Treccani). Also he recently published on the New Development Bank with – “Introduction – The evolution of New Development Bank (NDB): A decade plus in the making”.

The US-China relationship has been marked by growing competition and rivalry. Nevertheless, the two have made efforts to stabilize the relationship notably with the meeting between Presidents Xi and Biden at the margins of the APEC Summit in San Francisco in 2023. More recently, the ministers of defense have met at the margins of the Shangri-La Dialogue. Secretary Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun agreed to work toward better communications to stabilize military relations and avert crises, according to a statement from the Defense Department. The United States and China will “convene a crisis-communications working group by the end of the year.” So, what is the current state of the US-China relationship today and how are the two reshaping the global order in the face of US-China relations? Joining me in the Virtual Studio is Pascale Massot to discuss the state of the US-China relationship. Pascale is an associate professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is also non-resident Honorary Fellow, Political Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis, and a Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. She also has served as the Senior Advisor for China and Asia in the offices of various Canadian Cabinet ministers, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Pascale is the author of “China’s Vulnerability Paradox: How the World’s Largest Consumer Transformed Global Commodity Markets” (Oxford University Press, 2024). Her research interests include the global political economy of China’s rise and impact on the liberal international order, China’s impact on global extractive commodity markets, including debates around de-risking, Canada-China relations, Canadian public opinion on China and China narratives more broadly, as well as the advent of Indo-Pacific strategies around the world.

So it was a real pleasure to invite CEIP’s Stewart Patrick back into the Virtual Studio to talk about this critical UN Summit – the Summit of the Future (SoTF). This Summit will take place this year on September 22nd -23rd. The effort leading to this Summit began with the 75th UN anniversary and the call for the Secretary General (SG) to prepare recommendations for the future. And he in turn prepared the Report - “Our Common Agenda” among many recommendations the SG proposed a Summit of the Future (SoTF). The General Assembly then decided that the SoTF would take place in September 2024, building on the earlier Sustainable Development Goals summit in September 20203 – the ‘SDG Summit’. The outcome envisioned for the SoTF would be an intergovernmentally negotiated, action-oriented ‘Pact for the Future’. Stewart Patrick is senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). His primary areas of research focus are the shifting foundations of world order, the future of American internationalism, and the requirements for effective multilateral cooperation on transnational challenges. Stewart is an expert in the history and practice of multilateralism, He is the author of three books, including: The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World; Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security; and The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War. He has authored many articles, essays, chapters, and reports on problems of world order, U.S. global engagement, the United Nations and other international organizations, and the management of global issues.

It is with great pleasure that I have invited my colleague Bruce Jones into the Virtual Studio for this episode on ‘Shaking the Global Order’. ‘The US-China relationship has been marked by growing competition and rivalry but leaders did gather for a Xi-Biden Summit on November 15th that took place near San Francisco at the margin of the APEC Summit. So what is the state of US-China relations as a result of that Summit, tensions between the two over Taiwan and in the Indo-Pacific. How are the two reshaping the global order in the face of US-China relations? Bruce Jones is a senior fellow with the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution; he also works with the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. From 2015 to 2020, Bruce served as the vice president and director for the Foreign Policy program. His research expertise and policy experience is in international security. Bruce’s current research focus is on U.S. strategy, international order, and great power relations. His most recent books on the topic are “To Rule the Waves: How Control of the World’s Oceans Shapes the Fate of the Superpowers” (Scribner, 2021) and “The Marshall Plan and the Shaping of American Strategy,” (Brookings Institution Press, 2017) Bruce also has had significant experience on multilateral institutions. He was a senior advisor to Kofi Annan on U.N. reform and served as deputy research director to the U.N.’s High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, as well as lead scholar for the International Task Force on Global Public Goods. So, let’s join Bruce in the Virtual Studio to examine the US-China relationship and relations between the two in the Indo-Pacific.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome back to the Virtual Studio, Homi Kharas. In September during the High-Level Week at the UN General Assembly heads of state and government gathered at the invitation of the Secretary General to examine at the halfway point the progress made in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I wanted to get Homi’s views of the progress he saw in achieving the 17 goals of Agenda 2030. I also wanted to get Homi’s view of the two reports – ‘The Triple Agenda’ - of the Independent Expert Group (IEG) convened during the G20 India Presidency. The two volumes focused on the enhancement of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and their focus on global development and the green transition. Homi was, in fact, the lead author for both volumes of the ‘Triple Agenda’. Homi is a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings. In that capacity, he studies policies and trends influencing developing countries, including aid to poor countries, the emergence of the middle class, and global governance and the G20. His most recent co-authored/edited books are: “The Rise of the Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can Change the World” (2023), “Breakthrough: The Promise of Frontier Technologies for Sustainable Development” edited with John McArthur and Izumi Ohno (2022) and “Leave No One Behind: From Summits to Solutions: Time for Specifics on the Sustainable Development Goals" edited with John McArthur and Izumi Ohno (2019).

COP15 was designed to to agree on a new set of goals to guide global action through the next decade through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) post-2020 framework process to halt and reverse nature loss. Nature is critical to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. So I was happy to bring Stewart Patrick from CEIP back into the Virtual Studio to discuss the conclusion and consequences of COP15, the just completed UN Biodiversity Conference. Stewart Patrick is senior fellow and director of the Global Order and Institutions Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). His primary areas of research focus are the shifting foundations of world order, the future of American internationalism, and the requirements for effective multilateral cooperation on transnational challenges. Stewart is an expert in the history and practice of multilateralism, He is the author of three books, including: The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World; Weak Links: Fragile States, Global Threats, and International Security; and The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War. He has authored many articles, essays, chapters, and reports on problems of world order, U.S. global engagement, the United Nations and other international organizations, and the management of global issues.