ISF International Security Forum

Wednesday, 1 June 2011, 11:00 - 12:45

Plenary Session

The financial and economic crises have not only been a defining trend in international affairs, but together have acted as  catalysts for both geoeconomic and geopolitical shifts that were already underway from West to East. If the US currently spends more than six times as much as China on defense, this equation is changing as a decade of modernization of China’s military is beginning to bear fruit, especially in terms of its expanding naval capabilities that allow it to gain a stronger hand in the Asia-Pacific. Other emerging markets will look to play a greater role to reflect growing economic ambitions. Europe is slowly waking up to the fact that a useful barometer for its own political clout has to be set against US-Asia relations. This plenary session discusses the implications of these developments for international security: How stable is the emerging multipolar international system? How will global governance play out in the future? Are the BRICS countries as cohesive as the acronym suggests? Will the US be able or willing to underwrite global security indefinitely? And what are the implications for American statecraft?

Listen to Closing Plenary Session (Audio)

Chair

Andreas Wenger
Professor and Director, Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Speaker

Celso Amorim
Ambassador and Former Brazilian Minister of External Relations

Ajit Doval
Former Director, Indian Intelligence Bureau

More on Discussion Topic

International Relations History, Foreign Relations, Balance of Power

Location

Plenary Room