The Economic Statecraft Speaker Series connects current students and faculty with experts across policy and academic spheres. Each lecture will be held on Tuesdays at 12:30 PM (CT) unless otherwise noted.
2021
The Logic and Limits of China’s Outward Investment
April 13, 2021 | Zoom
Dr. Meg Rithmire – F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor of Business, Government, and International Economy
This session was hosted with Dr. Meg Rithmire, who is F. Warren MacFarlan Associate Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit. Professor Rithmire holds a PhD in government from Harvard University, and her primary expertise is in the comparative political economy of development with a focus on China and Asia. Her first book, Land Bargains and Chinese Capitalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), examines the role of land politics, urban governments, and local property rights regimes in the Chinese economic reforms. A new project, for which Dr. Rithmire conducted fieldwork in Asia in 2016-2017, investigates the relationship between capital and the state and globalization in Asia. The project focuses on a comparison of China, Malaysia, and Indonesia from the early 1980s to the present.
The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence
April 6, 2021 | Zoom
Dr. Henry Farrel – George Washington University Professor of Political Science and International Affairs & Dr. Abraham L. Newman – Georgetown University Professor of Foreign Service and Government
This session was hosted with Dr. Henry Farrell, an Associate Professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He works on a variety of topics, including trust, the politics of the Internet, and international and comparative political economy. He was joined by Dr. Abraham L. Newman, who is a Professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University. He is the Director of the Mortara Center for International Studies. His research focuses on the ways in which economic interdependence and globalization have transformed international politics. Dr. Farrell and Dr. Newman discussed their most recent book, The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence, which addresses how globalized information networks can be used for strategic advantage. By exploring how China, Russia, and the United States might be expected to weaponize control of information and manipulate the global economy, the authors challenge scholars and practitioners to think differently about foreign economic policy, national security, and statecraft.
The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century
March 30, 2021 | Zoom
Jonathan Hillman – Senior Fellow with the CSIS Economics Program and Director of the Reconnecting Asia Project
Jonathan E. Hillman is a senior fellow with the CSIS Economics Program and director of the Reconnecting Asia Project, one of the most extensive open-source databases tracking China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Hillman has testified before Congress, briefed government officials and Fortune 500 executives, and written on economics, national security, and foreign policy issues for the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and other outlets. He discussed his first book is The Emperor’s New Road: China and the Project of the Century.
Prior to joining CSIS, Hillman served as a policy adviser at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where he contributed to the 2015 U.S. National Security Strategy and the President’s Trade Agenda and directed the research and writing process for essays, speeches, and other materials explaining U.S. trade and investment policy. He has also worked as a researcher at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, the Council on Foreign Relations, and in Kyrgyzstan as a Fulbright scholar. He is a graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a presidential scholar, and Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Garrison Prize for best thesis in international relations
The Rise of China and the Future of Globalization
March 23, 2021 | Zoom
Dr. Aaron Friedberg – Princeton University Professor of Politics and International Affairs
This session was hosted by Aaron L. Friedberg, who is a Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1987. He is also the Codirector of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’s Center for International Security Studies, a non-resident Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and a Senior Advisor to the National Bureau of Asian Research. Dr. Friedberg discussed the hegemonic stability theory in relation to China and the prospects of deglobalization.
Economic Statecraft Begins at Home
March 16, 2021 | Zoom
Dr. Jonathan Kirshner – Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Boston College
This session was hosted by Dr. Jonathan Kirshner, who is a Professor of Political Science and International Studies. He discussed the economic consequences of the domestic social economy as a result of the sustained and cumulative inequality in the United States. His research and teaching interests focus on international relations, political economy (especially macroeconomics and money), and politics and film. His current research includes projects on classical realism, the international political implications of the financial crisis and its aftermath, and the politics of mid-century cinema.
Dr. Kirshner was the first World Politics Visiting Fellow at Princeton University’s Institute for International and Regional Studies and was the Director of the Economics and National Security Program at the Olin Institute at Harvard University from 2000 to 2004. With Eric Helleiner, he is the coeditor of the multi-disciplinary book series Cornell Studies in Money as well as the books The Great Wall of Money: Power and Politics in China’s International Monetary Relations and The Future of the Dollar.
Exploring the Parameters of China’s Economic Influence
March 9, 2021 | Zoom
Dr. Margaret Pearson – Distinguished Scholar of Government and Politics at University of Maryland
This session was hosted with Dr. Margaret Pearson, who is a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. She discussed her recent paper “Exploring the Parameters of China’s Economic Influence.”
Dr. Pearson’s research has focused on China’s domestic political economy, domestic bureaucratic and regulatory behavior, and Chinese foreign economic policy. Her research on China’s domestic politics focuses on state control of the economy and central-local bureaucratic relations, and environmental policy. On Chinese foreign policy, Dr. Pearson’s ongoing projects include determinants of Beijing’s behavior in global institutions, climate change governance, and conceptualizations of China’s overseas influence.
Global Monetary (Dis)Order and the Future of the Liberal International Order
March 2, 2021 | Zoom
Dr. Benjamin Cohen – Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy
This session was hosted with Dr. Benjamin Cohen, who is a Distinguished Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He discussed his recent book Currency Statecraft: Monetary Rivalry and Geopolitical Ambition.
Dr. Cohen argues that the primary motivation for currency statecraft is a state’s geopolitical ambition, noting that internationalized currencies greatly increase the power of the nation that produces it. Today, the major example of monetary rivalry is the emerging confrontation between the U.S. dollar and the Chinese renminbi. Dr. Cohen describes how China has vigorously promoted the international standing of its currency in recent years, even at the risk of exacerbating relations with the United States, and explains how the outcome could play a major role in shaping the broader geopolitical engagement between the two superpowers.
Preparing the United States for the Superpower Marathon with China
February 9, 2021 | Zoom
Michael Brown – Director of the Defense Innovation Unit
This session was hosted with the current Director of the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), Michael Brown. He discussed the Super Power Marathon, or the economic and technological competition the U.S. is engaged in with China.
Drawing on insights from his time in the U.S. government and his previous experiences as CEO of two leading technology companies (Symantec and Quantum), Mr. Brown discussed the new domains of competition with the People’s Republic of China—economics and technology—where the contest is likely to last multiple generations. While this competition has many dimensions—political, military, diplomatic, and ideological—the crux of the competition is geoeconomic. The key to the economic competition is technology and innovation, which has significant implications for future military advantage as well as commercial prosperity. Read Mr. Brown’s report “Preparing the United States for the Superpower Marathon with China.”
National Security Council policy making process and the nexus of economics and security
December 15, 2020 | Zoom
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jason Galui – SMU Cox Professor of Practice in Executive Education
This session was hosted with former Council of Economic Advisors and National Security Council staff member Lt. Col. Jason Galui, USA (Ret.). He discussed the National Security Council policymaking process and the nexus of economics and security.
Mr. Galui recently became a Professor of Practice in Executive Education at SMU Cox. During his twenty years in the U.S. Army, Mr. Galui’s service included personally advising President Barack Obama and President Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office, along with their respective National Security Advisors. Mr. Galui also served as Senior Advisor for National Security to the (Acting) Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), and he led CEA’s team responsible for analyzing issues at the nexus of economics and national security. Commissioned as an Armor officer, Mr. Galui led soldiers in combat during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and held leadership positions from the platoon level to the White House. In 2011 and 2012, he deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, and served as Strategic Advisor to the Commanding General of the NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan. A two-time Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy, Mr. Galui taught and mentored two generations of West Point cadets. Mr. Galui earned an MS in economics from the University of Texas at Austin and a BS in economics from the United States Military Academy at West Point.
