Jeffrey Garten, a professor at Yale, has suggested that America in its weakened financial condition after the Great Recession of 2008-2009 should take to the same strategy of multi-lateral engagement with China. With the U.S. banking system discredited and two wars continuing to stretch its military and its finances, America is at a disadvantage in trying to balance out Chinese assertiveness. Instead, Garten suggests the United States should lead the way toward working with other nations to build international institutions, like the World Trade Organization (WTO),”where China is obliged to play by the rules that a number of leading countries have subscribed to, and which has an orderly process of adjudication. While it still has leadership clout, the centrepiece of US efforts ought to be marshalling multilateral support for other such arrangements.” Examples of such “captive multi-lateral” efforts include an enforceable international climate change treaty, internet operation and a strengthened global monetary system.

Further reading: FT

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