SDSC Des Ball Chair Public Lecture

Wednesday 11 March 2020, 5.30 – 7.00PM

“American Foreign Policy and the 2020 Presidential Election”

Professor Bruce W. Jentleson Duke University

2020 Des Ball Chair, ANU

Video of lecture and Q&A session

Will foreign policy be a factor in the 2020 American presidential election? If so, on what issues and along what themes? As a leading scholar of the domestic politics of American foreign policy, as well as having extensive experience as a foreign policy advisor to Democratic presidential candidates and State Department official in the Clinton and Obama administrations, Bruce Jentleson brings a valuable perspective to the current American presidential campaign.

Bruce W. Jentleson is visiting ANU as the 2020 Des Ball Chair at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. He is the William Preston Few Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. He also is a Global Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He has served in a number of U.S. foreign policy positions, most recently as Senior Advisor to the State Department Policy Planning Director (2009-11) and chair of a Hillary Clinton 2016 foreign policy working group. In 2015-16 he was the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the John W. Kluge Center, Library of Congress. He received the 2018 American Political Science Association (APSA) International Security Section Joseph J. Kruzel Award for Distinguished Public Service. He is Co-Director of the Bridging the Gap project promoting greater policy relevance among academics. He holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

His most recent book is The Peacemakers: Leadership Lessons from 20th Century Statesmanship (W.W. Norton, 2018). His current book is Economic Sanctions: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2021). Recent articles include “Right-Sizing American Foreign Policy: A Progressive Approach,” (Democracy: Journal of Ideas, Fall 2019), “That Post-Liberal International Order: Some Core Characteristics” (Lawfare, September 2018), and “Geopolitical Globalization: Pluralization of Diplomacy and the Limits on Great Powers’ Power” (in progress).

Related Event with Professor Jentleson:

SDSC Des Ball Chair Research Seminar

Thursday 27 February 2020, 12.00 – 1.30PM

Room 1.04, Coombs Extension Building (8), Fellows Road, ANU

“Beyond the Liberal International Order: 21st Century Global Challenges”

What kind of international system is shaping up here in the third decade of the 21st century? Some see an updated version of the post-1945 Liberal International Order (LIO). Others stress US-China Great Power Competition. While some LIO elements persist and US-China is the single most important dyad, the dominant dynamic is the “pluralization of diplomacy.” The pluralization of diplomacy goes beyond just giving A-list emerging powers seats at the old tables. It is characterized by fewer states seeing their national interests best served by largely exclusive relationships with just one major power, more states having more relations with each other on a wide range of issues, and consequent limits on major powers’ leverage whether coercive or inducing. Examples are cited from the Middle East and Asia, and implications addressed for a range of issues.

To RSVP to the Research Seminar on 27 February 2020, please email bellschoool@anu.edu.au with the email title “Des Ball Research Seminar RSVP