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WORK TITLE: All Measures Short of War
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https://www.brookings.edu/experts/thomas-wright/ * https://www.ft.com/content/5475b230-4b7e-11e7-919a-1e14ce4af89b
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:University College Dublin, B.A., M.A.; Cambridge University, M.Phil.; Georgetown University, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author. Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, lecturer; Center on the United States and Europe, director. Princeton Project on National Security, senior researcher.
MEMBER:Chicago Council on Global Affairs (executive director), Fulbright Commission (board member and vice-chair).
AWARDS:Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs predoctoral fellow; Princeton University postdoctoral fellow; Project on International Order and Strategy senior fellow.
WRITINGS
International Politics Reviews, editorial board member. Also contributor to periodicals, including the Washington Post, American Political Science Review, International Herald Tribune, Orbis, Financial Times, Washington Quarterly, and Survival.
SIDELIGHTS
Thomas J. Wright is most well known as an expert and scholar in the field of foreign policy. Prior to starting his career, Wright attended Cambridge University and Georgetown University, where he earned his M.Phil. and Ph.D., respectively. He has held fellowships under several institutions, including Princeton University and Brookings Institution. He is also affiliated with the Princeton Project on National Security as a senior researcher, and with the Center on the United States and Europe, where he serves as a director. Wright has contributed scholarly articles to various periodicals, as well as released a book focusing on his field of expertise.
All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power serves as a platform for Wright to challenge how the United States currently interacts with foreign nations. Wright specifically argues against using force to achieve political goals and that, instead, discussion and other nonviolent solutions are the better option. Furthermore, when other countries execute plans that the American government disagrees with, or that seeks to further their individual agendas, the United States must approach negotiations in a logical and constructive manner. In making his point, Wright observes that, with the current state of today’s nations, we are headed for a system of world powers fighting for dominance. The United States especially has become more aggressive as of recent years, thanks in part to the policies of Donald Trump and his push toward America fighting for its interests in the face of any potential foreign threats. Wright proposes that the idea of nations having conflicting interests is a natural occurrence, but not a cause for war. While these occurrences present complications for all governments involved, the best solution is also the most logical and thoroughly planned. Wright ultimately casts the United States as responsible for facilitating open and calm relations between its fellow nations. In acting as mediator, the United States can help to keep a more peaceful world. A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: “This is no casual read, but it raises issues that can’t be ignored.”
On the Foreign Affairs website, G. John Ikenberry called All Measures Short of War a “smart book.” Financial Times Online writer Gideon Rachman commented: “Wright’s book is a convincing refutation of the idea that America might be better off if it abandoned the idea of a liberal global order and acquiesced in the creation of regional spheres of influence for Russia, China and (possibly) Iran.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, March 27, 2017, review of All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power, p. 92.
ONLINE
Brookings, https://www.brookings.edu/ (November 15, 2017), author profile.
Financial Times Online, https://www.ft.com/ (June 9, 2017), Gideon Rachman, review of All Measures Short of War.
Foreign Affairs, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ (August 15, 2017), G. John Ikenberry, review of All Measures Short of War.
Thomas Wright
Director - Center on the United States and Europe
Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Project on International Order and Strategy
@thomaswright08
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Thomas Wright is the director of the Center on the United States and Europe and a senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at the Brookings Institution. He is also a nonresident fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. Previously, he was executive director of studies at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a lecturer at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and senior researcher for the Princeton Project on National Security.
Wright works on U.S. foreign policy and grand strategy, Donald Trump's worldview, the future of Europe, and Asian security. His book “All Measures Short of War: The Contest For the 21st Century and the Future of American Power” was published by Yale University Press in May 2017.
Wright has a doctorate from Georgetown University, a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge University, and a bachelor's and master's from University College Dublin. He has also held a pre-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and a post doctoral fellowship at Princeton University. Wright's writings have appeared in the American Political Science Review, Orbis, Survival, The Washington Quarterly, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, and The Washington Post, as well as a number of international newspapers and media outlets.
Affiliations:
Fulbright Commission, Ireland, vice chair and board member
International Politics Reviews, Palgrave Macmillan, editorial board
CONTACT
Email
202.797.6072 — Office
TOPICS
Europe
European Union
National Security
PROGRAMS
Foreign Policy
CENTERS
Center on the United States and Europe
PROJECTS
Brookings-Robert Bosch Foundation Transatlantic Initiative
Project on International Order and Strategy
ADDITIONAL EXPERTISE AREAS
U.S. national security
International order
U.S. alliances
Europe
Diplomacy
EXPERIENCE
PAST POSITIONS
Executive Director of Studies, Chicago Council on Global Affairs
Lecturer, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
Senior Researcher, Princeton Project on National Security
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies
Pre-Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Georgetown University
M.Phil., University of Cambridge
B.A. and M.A., University College Dublin
All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power
Publishers Weekly. 264.13 (Mar. 27, 2017): p92.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Full Text:
All Measures Short of War:
The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power
Thomas J. Wright. Yale Univ., $27.50 (288p)
ISBN 978-0-300-22328-6
This book on foreign affairs is a bracing antidote to simplistic thinking about complex policies. Wright, a Brookings Institute fellow, takes his title from F.D.R.'s pledge, prior to the American entry into WWII, to use "all measures short of war" to defeat fascism. This tightly reasoned analysis argues that the U.S. must find a delicate way to counter rivals such as China, Iran, and Russia while not overreacting to their attempts to influence policy in their own regions. Wright espouses the doctrine of "responsible competition," which recognizes that nations will compete and proposes that, if the competition is measured and rational, the parties can avoid armed conflict. Russia and China's recent actions, he acknowledges, are problematic, but a policy of reasonable competition would prevent inadvertent escalation. With economic and political cooperation between nations on the decline and nationalism on the rise, Wright warns that it is more important than ever for the U.S. to adopt a firm foreign policy and prevent global conflict from spreading. The difficulty lies in defining "responsible competition," which each power can interpret differently. The author assumes countries will act rationally, but history argues the opposite. This is no casual read, but it raises issues that can't be ignored. (May)
All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the Twenty-first Century and the Future of American Power
by Thomas J. Wright
Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry
In This Review
If the U.S.-led liberal international order erodes, what will take its place? In this smart book, Wright argues that the world is slowly inching back to its normal state of great-power competition and zero-sum conflict. What many observers saw as a post–Cold War global victory of liberalism and multilateral cooperation was, in Wright’s realist interpretation, just the temporary dominance of the United States and its ideas. China and Russia were never on a path toward liberal democracy; they were simply waiting until they were strong enough to push back against the West. Wright contends that the triumphalist liberal narrative omits the fact that for large parts of the non-Western world, ethnic and nationalist traditions have been strengthened and not weakened by the forces of globalization. In the coming era of geopolitical competition, he warns, multilateral cooperation will recede and the United States will lose its grip on global institutions. Curiously, despite this bleak prognosis, Wright argues against a U.S. grand strategy of offshore balancing or of managing regional spheres of influence. He argues instead for a strategy of “responsible competition,” in which Washington would seek to preserve the international liberal order and would step up its diplomacy, alliance maintenance, and deep engagement with the world
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All Measures Short of War by Thomas Wright — the price of power
Gideon Rachman on a convincing case against ‘America First’ foreign policy
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JUNE 9, 2017 by Gideon Rachman
Donald Trump’s “America First” philosophy marks a profound break with the liberal and internationalist ideas that have shaped US foreign policy since the second world war. Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution was one of the first scholars to attempt a serious analysis of Trump’s views on foreign policy. In his new book, Wright makes a convincing case that an “America First” strategy, as advocated by President Trump, will harm both the world and the US itself.
All Measures Short of War was clearly originally conceived of as a potential handbook for an incoming Clinton administration. The author wryly acknowledges that his recommendations for a reinvigorated US commitment to the liberal international order are unlikely to be met with favour in the Trump White House. Nonetheless, Wright’s book is still an immensely useful and lucid analysis of the current global balance of power — and therefore of the challenges that will face any occupant of the Oval Office.
One of the most convincing insights in the book is that the “world order” is, in fact, a series of regional orders that are underpinned by US power. As Wright puts it: “The most important piece of the liberal order is not the United Nations or international financial institutions . . . It is healthy regional orders . . . If those regional orders fall apart, so will the global order.” The difficulty is that the regional orders in Europe, Asia and the Middle East are, indeed, under immense pressure. As Wright shows, the fond hope of successive US presidents was that Russia and China would buy into a US-led world order, perceiving it to be ultimately beneficial to their own economic interests. There were even hopes in America that the Middle East would “converge” with the western model — hopes that were briefly stoked by the Arab Spring.
In fact, things have not worked out that way. As Wright tells it, the rise of China and the revival of Russia encouraged both countries to challenge US strategic dominance in their respective regions. As authoritarian regimes, they were also worried that the liberal order would undermine their hold on power. The regional order in the Middle East was never liberal in the first place. But it is certainly unravelling fast — which is both a cause and a consequence of the decline of American regional power.
Faced with all this global disorder, one possible American reaction would to throw up their hands in horror and head home. This indeed seems to be the instinct of Trump, who has repeatedly questioned the idea that it is in America’s interests to sustain its alliance systems around the world, on the current model. Trump has famously argued that the US is being duped by foreign countries that free-ride off the American security guarantee — while trading unfairly with their protector.
Wright’s book is a convincing refutation of the idea that America might be better off if it abandoned the idea of a liberal global order and acquiesced in the creation of regional spheres of influence for Russia, China and (possibly) Iran. “The liberal international order has been tremendously successful in safeguarding US interests while bolstering the peace and prosperity of most of the rest of the world,” he argues. By contrast, a world organised around regional spheres of influence would be much less stable and would encourage China, Russia and others to test US resolve. In such a world, trade would diminish and democracy would retreat. “The United States would quickly find itself embroiled in conflict and from a much weaker position than it now enjoys.”
If the US is to maintain its position in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, it needs alliances, which are “a power multiplier, a stabilising force in the regions, and a source of legitimacy”. As for the fact that some Nato and Asian allies spend less on their own defence than Trump would like, “some free-riding is part of the price the United States must pay for the benefits of being a superpower”. Trump has vehemently rejected this kind of analysis. Many of his most senior advisers, however, seem broadly to accept the enduring value of alliances. The contest between the president’s instincts and his staff’s advice may come to define US foreign policy in the Trump era.
Wright’s book does leave one nagging question largely unaddressed. Even if the author is correct that it is clearly in America’s interests to maintain the liberal global order, there remains the question of whether the US can marshal the economic and strategic resources to retain its global dominance. Towards the end of the book, Wright asserts that “The United States is not in decline” — but he devotes little space to refuting the declinist thesis. Many Trump voters seem to believe that the US is indeed on the slide, and some foreign powers seem to concur. If the declinists are right, then the liberal international order sustained by America may be doomed to inexorable erosion — whatever the intentions of the occupant of the Oval Office.
All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power, by Thomas J Wright, Yale, RRP£18.99/$27.50, 288 pages
Gideon Rachman is the FT’s chief foreign affairs commentator