Photo-IainJohnson

The Global and International Studies Program would like to announce our first Contemporary Trends speaker, Dr. Iain Johnston (Professor of Government, Harvard University), whose paper “China and International Order: Which China? Which Order?” will be presented on Thursday, January 21rst, 2016 at 4:30 pm in 2017 Dunton Tower.

A common meme in the policy, pundit, and academic worlds is that China’s rise challenges a US-dominated liberal international order. But does such an order actually exist? The talk problematizes “order” and suggests that there are in fact multiple orders, some of which are in tension with others. China supports some elements of some of these orders, and opposes other elements. The complexity of China’s relationship to various orders suggests that the common meme not especially useful descriptively or analytically.