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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.

Essay
The Economic Returns of Foreign Language Learning
If just 10 percent more students in the United Kingdom mastered Arabic, Mandarin, French, or Spanish, the economic returns could be measured in billions of British pounds. Removing the language barrier reduces trade costs.
Jul 7, 2022
Commentary
Advancing Global Citizenship in America
Concerted international action is required to address climate change and sustainability, pandemics, global security, and economic growth. But such action requires a sense of common destiny and shared responsibility among people across nations. What are Americans' attitudes toward global issues, and what could encourage them to become citizens of the world?
Mar 24, 2022

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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
Blog
Theresa May, Emotional Learning, Teachers: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on Theresa May's resignation, social and emotional learning, the value of a good teacher, and more.
May 31, 2019
Commentary
This Is Not a Great-Power Competition
The emerging conventional wisdom among foreign policy analysts in Washington is that a new era of great-power competition is upon us. But does that phrase really capture today's reality?
May 29, 2019
Commentary
What Ronald Reagan Can Teach Us About Dealing with Contemporary Russia
Politics loves its historical analogies and today, perhaps, there is no more common a comparison to the Trump presidency than the Reagan administration. Reagan's tenure was marked by his successful competition with the Soviet Union. Does Reagan provide a blueprint for triumphing over modern Russia?
May 13, 2019
Commentary
Russia Chooses Paupers as Partners, with Questionable Benefit
By leveraging the efficiencies of globalization and cultivating ties with prosperous partners, Russia could increase its economic potential and improve living standards for its people. And by engaging more positively with the world, it could gain influence in the forums that matter, such as the G20 and multilateral institutions.
Feb 14, 2019
Commentary
The Need to Think More Clearly About 'Great-Power Competition'
Today's world order is increasingly defined by competition between the United States and a host of major powers, especially China and Russia. Who is America's principal competitor and over what is it competing? What is America’s ultimate objective? And how will it prepare its economy and its society for infinite competition of an indefinite nature?
Feb 11, 2019
Commentary
Questioning the Presumption of a U.S.-China Power Transition
The United States occupies the central role in a world order that, while under growing duress, remains a central organizing framework in world affairs. There are many trajectories along which U.S.-China relations might evolve if China aims to displace the United States for global pre-eminence.
Jan 9, 2019
Commentary
The End of the End of History?
The Trump administration has taken steps that represent a significant retreat from the norm-based, world order that the United States has championed since 1945. If this shift continues, what might be the impact?
Jan 8, 2019
Blog
Terrorists, Policing, Cyberattacks: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on terrorism recruitment trends, helping police find the right strategies, who should investigate cyberattacks, and more.
Dec 21, 2018
Blog
Most Popular RAND Blog Commentary of 2018
RAND experts publish hundreds of pieces of RAND Blog commentary every year, weighing in on pressing policy questions, breaking down current events, and untangling complex trends. To look back on some of the policy stories that defined the year, we've rounded up the RAND Blog pieces that resonated most with rand.org visitors.
Dec 20, 2018
Commentary
The Good and Bad of the Trump Administration's New Africa Strategy
The Trump administration's Africa strategy combines a turn away from counterterrorism as a priority, emphasis on trade, and working to help Africans solve their own problems, all of which could be opportunities for a more positive relationship. The implied prioritization of great power competition, however, suggests the real risk of a return to Cold War-era approach.
Dec 20, 2018
Commentary
Japan's Chance to Shine?
Japan may never be a global leader in a way comparable to the United States. But Tokyo does have the power to provide leadership that will sustain key elements of the crumbling international order.
Oct 30, 2018

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Research conducted by

Researcher Spotlight

Howard J. Shatz

Senior Economist

Howard J. Shatz is a senior economist at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He specializes in international economics and economics and national security. His RAND research has included economic issues related to Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of…
Robin Meili

Associate Director, International

Robin Meili is associate director, International; director, International Programs; and a senior management systems scientist at the RAND Corporation. Her primary responsibilities include globalizing RAND's research portfolio, managing philanthropic advisory boards and RAND's international…

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