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Globalization

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International trade policies and new technologies facilitate the flow of people, information, and products across national borders, in turn encouraging the integration of regional economies, societies, and cultures. RAND research has investigated how globalization affects and has been affected by policymaking throughout the world.

Report

How American Influence Has Declined, and What Can Be Done About It

Sep 8, 2020

The United States has been declining in foreign policy achievements for two decades. Skeptics need to be persuaded that working for a more peaceful and prosperous world is in America's national and their personal interest. And sustained public support for international engagement requires cooperation across party lines.
Commentary

After COVID-19: America Needs to Reengage with the World, Not Retreat

Apr 1, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic should lead to a further strengthening of the national and international response capacity. The alternative of erecting barriers and closing America off to the world would leave it more vulnerable to the next big shock.

Explore Globalization

Commentary

Shared Prosperity: The Crying Need for Inclusive Globalization

The disaffection of a wide swath of the American population has been linked to the political polarization of the country, as well as its divisive tendencies. While globalization is not the only reason for this disaffection, it is an apt lens through which to view the revolt against elitism, expertise, and changing demographics.

Feb 23, 2021
Commentary

Humility and Limits

When it spurns global institutions and norms and throws its considerable military weight around, the United States destroys its greatest competitive advantage—the prized role as the hub of a predominant network of global power.

Feb 9, 2021
Commentary

Lead from Behind

Support for a reformed rules-based order may be the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. But the word “reformed” is crucial in that statement. The U.S. approach to strengthening global order will have to change in ways that will sit uneasily with the expectations and habits of the world's leading power.

Feb 9, 2021
Commentary

The Lost Generation in American Foreign Policy

Throughout the 55 years following World War II, successive U.S. administrations racked up major foreign policy successes at an average rate of about once a year. Since 2001, the pace of foreign policy achievement has fallen to once every four years. The result has been a lost generation in American foreign policy.

Sep 15, 2020
Blog

America's Declining Global Influence, COVID-19 and Schools, Pardoning Snowden: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on America's declining status on the world stage, why schools need long-term plans to address COVID-19, what Shinzo Abe's resignation means for the U.S.-Japan alliance, and more.

Sep 11, 2020
Commentary

Why Russia Struggles to Feed Its Great-Power Addiction

Russia has become less cooperative and pursued more autarky in recent years. If Moscow continues on a path of resisting globalization, it could be left behind.

May 11, 2020
Commentary

Why COVID-19 Will Not Stop Globalization

Commentators have predicted that the outbreak will upend how we think about the flow of people and goods across borders and leave a markedly different world in its wake. But while COVID-19 will change the mechanics of globalization, it will likely not spell globalization's death knell.

Apr 13, 2020
Blog

COVID-19's Effects on Mental Health, Food Access, and Education: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on COVID-19 and mental health, food security challenges during the pandemic, supporting children while schools are closed, and more.

Apr 3, 2020
Commentary

Wake-Up Call for Russia

Deteriorating living standards have put Russians on edge, and fears of economic stagnation have risen. Russia has the capacity to do better. So why is the economy stagnating?

Mar 9, 2020
Commentary

Power and Legitimacy Go Hand in Hand

The United States has a truly distinct approach to power which has made all the difference in the post-war world. We abandon it at our peril.

Feb 21, 2020
Commentary

The Real U.S.-China Competition: Theories of Influence

Strategic competition between the United States and China has come to dominate U.S. foreign policy debates. That competition is multifaceted, but it may turn on a basic question: Which country has a more sustainable concept of national influence?

Jan 29, 2020
Commentary

China's Footprint in Europe

Tensions between Washington and Brussels may be helping China find a more receptive audience for its Belt and Road initiative. One of the central challenges for the United States and Europe will be to forge a more united approach to China's resurgence.

Jan 13, 2020
Commentary

A New Phase in Middle-Power Adjustment to U.S.–China Competition?

Observers of world order focus inordinately on intensifying strategic competition between the United States and China. Less examined, but no less important, is how their competition is affecting geopolitics outside of the two countries.

Nov 5, 2019
Commentary

The Emerging U.S.–China Strategic Competition and the Role of Trans-Atlantic Cooperation

When competing with China, what role should U.S. alliances, especially the transatlantic relationships the United States has with its European partners, play? This question is potentially decisive for whether or not any strategy adopted by the U.S. to compete with China will succeed or fail.

Oct 8, 2019
Commentary

The China Dream: Never Closer, yet Never More Elusive

To achieve its goals of national rejuvenation, China needs to become a true world power. But a softening economy and political gridlock make it seem less and less likely that Beijing will realize all of its objectives.

Oct 1, 2019
Commentary

How Not to Confront China

There are several key reasons why current U.S. policy toward China may not help advance America's competitiveness or enlist much support abroad. Most notably, the administration has yet to explain what it ultimately hopes to accomplish.

Sep 23, 2019
Commentary

Beyond Hawks and Doves: A Better Way to Debate U.S.–China Policy

The best long-term outcome for U.S.–China relations may be one in which inexorably intensifying competition coexists with occasionally fruitful cooperation. It is not the most inspiring result, to be sure, but it is preferable to unconstrained antagonism.

Sep 20, 2019
Commentary

Time to Return to the Basics of Statecraft

After two decades of setbacks abroad, it's time to ask whether the decline in American influence is irreversible. Ultimately, neither China nor Russia is responsible for these difficulties. Washington's failures have been self-inflicted, the result of flawed policy rather than any decisive shift in the global balance of power.

Sep 4, 2019

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