US Studies National Summit: 21st Century America - Reflections, Challenges and Aspirations

The United States Studies Centre hosted the inaugural National Summit on 21st Century America: Reflections, Aspirations and Challenges, from 10 - 11 December 2007. The Summit explored emerging trends in American foreign policy, politics, business and society. The 150 participants included academics, postgraduate students, and representatives from government, consular offices, the media and business.

Podcasts of the Summit talks are available to download. Please refer to Summit’s program below, structured around the themes of Power and Democracy, Wealth Creation and Rights Protection and American Thinking.

Keynote Address: Will the Next US Foreign Policy Look Surprisingly Like the Current One?

Professor Michael Nacht, Dean and Professor of Public Policy, Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California - Berkeley

Australian respondent: Professor Robert O'Neill AO, former Director and Chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, London

Abstract

President Bush has been under withering criticism for more than two years because of his policy in Iraq and his emphasis on unilateral approaches, reaching a recent low public approval rating of 30 percent. Will his successor initially be radically different as most observers assume? An examination of current and plausible circumstances in Iraq, Iran, the war on terror, North Korea, Pakistan, China, Russia, India, NATO, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the United Nations suggests there may be fewer fundamental variations than most critics of the President expect.

Professor Nacht's biography

Read Professor's Nacht's editorial "Failures abroad force change of heart in US" in The Sydney Morning Herald.

Climate Change or Islamofascism: Mobilizing a Democracy in a World of Multiple Threats

Professor Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

Australian respondent: Mr Allan Gyngell, Executive Director, Lowy Institute for International Policy

Abstract

The central foreign policy debate among 2008 presidential candidates pits the largely Democratic view that the 21st century poses many different threats and challenges against the largely Republican view that the central overriding threat to American security is Islamic terrorism, or, more provocatively, Islamofascism. These two views rest on different assumptions and give rise to different strategies. The "one enemy" worldview has great attractions in a democracy, where voters who do not think very much about foreign policy are naturally put off by the complexity of the actual 21st century world. The way out of this dilemma is to stop being so obsessed with threats and instead offer a positive vision of the world, one that requires long-term engagement, collaboration, and institution-building, to achieve.

Professor Slaughter's biography

Read Professor Slaughter's editorial "US needs to transcend neo-con view" in The Australian.

How Countries Compete

Professor Richard Vietor, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management, Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration

Australian respondent:
Mr Tim Harcourt, Chief Economist, Australian Trade Commission (Austrade)

Abstract

This lecture is on ‘How Countries Compete’ – a summary/sample of a book I recently published. The theme is that countries, like companies, compete for exports and growth in the global economy. Like firms, they have strategies and structures that work together, either effectively or ineffectively. The role of government is crucial. While the book deals with seven developmental trajectories and 10 countries, my presentation will focus on just a few – examples of high-growth Asia, countries from Latin America and Africa that are “stuck in the middle,” and developed countries – Japan and the USA – facing crises.

Professor Vietor's biography

Read Professor Vietor's comments in "US economy is in serious need of reform" by Greg Earl in The Australian Financial Review.

America Then, America Now: Continuing Tensions in Who Americans Are and What We Believe

Professor William Chafe, Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History, Duke University

Australian respondent: Dr Stephen Robertson, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Sydney

Abstract
From the beginning of European settlement, Americans have struggled with three fundamental issues: is the good of the whole more important than the liberty of the individual; is it possible for a democracy to co-exist with racism; and is America so exceptional that it can, and should, act unilaterally to pursue its wishes in the world? These questions, then and now, shape ongoing tensions over who Americans are, and what we believe.

Professor Chafe's biography

Listen ABC Radio Margaret Throsby's interview with Professor Chafe.