Modulo 11: Dietro le quinte delle notizie

To understand how the Administration works, one needs to understand the “wellsprings” of U.S. foreign policy.  And to understand the wellsprings of U.S. foreign policy, one needs to understand how the United States differs in many fundamental ways from the “Westphalian States” of Europe founded in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War in 1648.  As a result, the first section of the presentation will discuss the origins and history of American foreign policy. To develop a more refined appreciation of how any U.S. Administration works, one must understand the foreign policy making process in the United States.  Process often drives policy.  The dictum “where you stand is where you sit” offers great insights into the foreign policy making process of any nation and indeed of most organizations.  As a result, the second section of the presentation will focus on the American foreign policy making process and how diplomats and embassies function as influencers and implementers of a process largely driven by the National Security Council-led “inter-agency process.” The third and final section of the presentation will explore America’s post-WWII foreign policy, focusing on both the traditional approaches shared by all Republican and Democratic presidents from 1945-2016 (i.e., the construction and maintenance of the “post-war liberal international order”), and the revolutionary and very disruptive approach adopted following the November 2016 election of Donald Trump as President of the United States.  It will discuss President Biden’s foreign policy and will emphasize the actual practice of American foreign policy rather than the theory undergirding it.  In this final section of the presentation, we will discuss pressing current issues like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the United States’ efforts to stem China’s rise. The primary goal of this presentation is to provide participants a greater understanding of what drives American foreign policy, how it is made and implemented, and how American foreign policy has been applied both pre and post-Trump.  By the end of the presentation, participants should better appreciate how the ‘American Empire’ has been administered, why it appeared to unravel under the Trump Administration, and whether President Biden can “put the genie back into the bottle” and return to pre-2016 norms of U.S. foreign policy. The presentation will highlight the sometimes rather stark gap between traditional academic discussion of the subject matter and the realities of the conduct of diplomacy, revealing that foreign policy is quite often ‘made up as you go’ (or muddling through) rather than the result of the implementation of some preconceived ‘grand scheme.’  A more nuanced understanding of the foreign policy of what remains, for now, the world’s leading power might help journalists in their future careers.  Anyone with an internationally focused career will have to grapple with the influence of the United States.  After this presentation, participants should be able to better understand their American interlocutors and why the U.S. does what it does and does not do what you might think it should do.

Multilateral development banks and international organizations have been at the center of economic and social development since the end of the second World War.  To a large extent, these institutions have helped shape the current prevalent economic thinking as well as our institutional and physical world.  Yet, faced with a growing climate crisis, migration pressures, increasing inequalities and the rise of populism, these institutions are now also facing their own existential crisis.

We will take a closer look at how these institutions have shaped our world so far and why they are facing such strong headwinds today.  Looking at the current proposed reforms of the Bretton Woods institutions and the growing role of international foras like the G20 or the BRICS, we will discuss how the multilateral world is likely to evolve.