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Joschka Fischer, the 2007 Bartels World Affairs Fellow, speaks at Cornell University.

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Krasner calls for a new grand American strategy in foreign policy

Posted on: 9/30/2008

Addressing the need for a new grand strategy in American foreign policy, Stephen Krasner ’63 called for a world of responsible sovereigns at his lecture on September 17th. The Director of the Einaudi Center, Nic van de Walle, introduced Professor Krasner as a speaker in the Center’s Foreign Policy Distinguished Speaker Series.

Stephen Krasner, the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations at Stanford and Former Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department, gave a lecture entitled “Can America Find a Grand Strategy?” He argued that from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War, America’s prime strategy was containment; however, the current political environment necessitates a new strategy. Our contemporary structure is characterized by major powers, including an unprecedented American hegemony, an unprecedented western security community, and a shift in power in Asia from Japan to China and India. There is also the presence of sovereignty failures and weapons of mass destruction, which includes a slew of failed and weakly governed states and the rise of state-supported, “trans-national terrorism.” 

Krasner discussed three grand strategies that have been the main contenders. Retrenchment is the idea that America should be resistant to using force; should form limited alliances; should limit expectations of accomplishments in developing countries; and that transnational terrorism is a manageable threat. On the other hand, the Bush Doctrine has been driven by “root causes and democratization” of the entire world; the motto “multilateralism if possible, unilateralism if necessary”; and the ideas of preemption and prevention. Lastly, multilateral engagement represents the opposite viewpoint of the Bush Doctrine.

Krasner believes that none of these strategies encompasses everything America must accomplish, so he proposed what he called “responsible sovereignty.” According to this strategy, America needs to “govern effectively within its own borders” and play by existing international rules. Its premise is normalization rather than democratization because Krasner believes that “political development is path dependent, not linear.” We should take into account that “political leaders in weak and failed states may prefer bad governance,” so it is not our duty to force upon them what we perceive to be correct. 

Professor Krasner’s talk was part of the Foreign Policy Initiative at Cornell led by the Einaudi Center to maximize the intellectual impact of Cornell’s outstanding resources in this area.

Contact Information
Heike Michelsen
Einaudi Center
255 8926
hm75@cornell.edu

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