Brookings Mountain West presents “The Return of Geopolitical Competition and the Future of American Grand Strategy,” a talk by Thomas Wright, fellow, Foreign Policy.

One of the defining features of world politics since the financial crisis is the return of geopolitical competition. In North East Asia, China and Japan are locked in a struggle for control of the Senkaku/ Diaoyu Islands while relations between South Korea and Japan have deteriorated over history issues. In the Middle East, a proxy war is being fought over Syria and the region seems headed to a Cold War between Sunnis and Shias. In Eastern Europe, Russia successfully thwarted EU efforts to engage Armenia and Ukraine. In this lecture, Thomas Wright describes the return of geopolitics and argues that it will present new challenges for the global order and the United States. To address these challenges, the United States needs to adjust its grand strategy and engage deeply in East Asia and the Middle East.