The 2010 Foreign Affairs Symposium

Re-Engaging the World: The New Global Community

A decade into the twenty-first century, the trends that will characterize the remaining ninety years have already begun to take shape.  The rise of China, India, and Brazil is well documented and their growing influence apparent.  Concurrently, the United States, which rose to superpower status in the middle of the twentieth century, has found itself bogged down in two wars, hampered by an economic crisis, and facing profound domestic challenges regarding its healthcare and education systems.  The United States is, and will remain, a leading power in the world, but as the last ten years have demonstrated, it by no means will be the only power.

We live in a world of increasing multi-polarity that has come alongside rising interdependence and interconnectivity due to globalization.  Just as our politics and economics have transcended borders, so have our challenges.  The challenges we face as a nation are also global, and it is argued that they require international engagement and cooperation in order to solve.  That being said, what would such a global framework look like?  How would it operate?  Is it capable of reconciling the inevitable differences between countries on any issue?  Such questions and more will be addressed in the 2010 Foreign Affairs Symposium, Re-Engaging the World: The New Global Community.