Robert Zoellick Considers Challenges of U.S. Foreign Policy
“When I was in government, I drew a lot on history as I tried to think about problems.”
So explained the former World Bank president Robert B. Zoellick in a recent discussion of challenges in U.S. global relations.
Zoellick, who led the World Bank from 2007 to 2012, served as deputy secretary of the state from 2005 to 2006 and as U.S. trade representative from 2001 to 2005. He’s now a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
Speaking with SIPA faculty Thomas Christensen and Adam Tooze on January 29, Zoellick offered insights based on his long career— and his latest book, America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy. Dean Merit Janow delivered opening remarks.
When Zoellick visited SIPA in October 2019 to give the annual Silver Lecture, he spoke about the historical interplay between of American trade policy and foreign policy. The new book provides a wider lens, Zoellick explained, using examples from history to explain the ideas that contributed to shaping U.S. diplomatic ideology. He said the American philosophical tradition of pragmatism, which emphasizes focusing on practical consequences and results, is a unifying theme.
“Many foreign policy courses these days seem to rely on international relations theories,” Zoellick said. “While they’re fun to play with intellectually, my experience was that they were of limited use when I’m dealing with German unification, genocide in Darfur, trade, or other topics. So I wanted to focus on practical problem solving.”
He said his book is meant to encourage emerging practitioners in the field.
Asked about incorporating climate issues into modern diplomacy, Zoellick suggested that environmental problems, from famines to floods to pandemics, have always been important to global history. He said the importance of science and technology to foreign policy will only increase in the years ahead: It will be a key element of ongoing competition with China just as it was in the Cold War against the USSR.
Should the United States “prune” some of its security commitments and alliances? Experts, Zoellick said, should realize that U.S. alliances with other countries, while critical, will not take the same form they did decades ago, and must continuously adapt and transform. He said it was a mistake to suggest to Ukraine and Georgia that there would be a path to NATO membership, and is pessimistic about a possible alliance with India, which could only be a partnership at best.
He also cited the U.S. relationship with Taiwan as a critical case in the Asia-Pacific region. Zoellick said he personally hopes to maintain the country’s autonomy, while not necessarily reaching sovereignty, and to keep it a part of the market economic system.
Considering how economic policy can alternately support and undercut security policy, Zoellick cited the U.S.-China relationship as an example: “Chasing China by trying to close off the United States is a losing proposition,” he said. “Openness is our trump card, whether it’s openness to goods, to people, to capital [or] to ideas.”
If President Biden continues the last administration’s focus on protectionism, Zoellick said, the country will fall behind on its efforts to reestablish relations, especially as the intra-Asian market develops and increasingly relies less on the U.S. economy.
The discussion wrapped up with a Q&A session with the audience. One guest asked for Zoellick’s advice to new Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “Stay close to the president,” he said, underscoring that a close working relationship with Biden will be key to the new official’s success in foreign affairs.
— Aastha Uprety MPA ’21
America in the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy
January 29, 2021