Across the West, there is a loss of confidence in its own political model. Growing inequalities are leading many to question open-market economics and provoking a backlash against global engagement. The global distribution of power is shifting. Revisionist, autocratic states seek to disrupt or displace the existing system. Authoritarian state capitalism is challenging the Western model of free markets and politics as the best way to order society. In addition, new issues, such as emerging disruptive technologies, have arisen for which the original system was never designed.
To respond to this changing world, we need a new strategy—one that is both ambitious and innovative, geared towards meeting the challenges and opportunities that the new decade brings. In this Atlantic Council Strategy Paper, Present at the Re-Creation, Ash Jain and Matthew Kroenig propose exactly that: a visionary but actionable global strategy for revitalizing, adapting, and defending the rules-based international system.
