The Future of American Power (Jan 2013 - Dec 2014)

Lead academic:

Dr Adam Quinn, email a.j.quinn@bham.ac.uk.

Academic partners:

London School of Economics, University of Warwick, City University, London

Non-academic partners:

Chatham House

Funder/ funding:

Economic and Social Research Council (seminar series grant)

Context

This is an ESRC Seminar Series running in 2013-14, with the aim of bringing together scholars of internationally-leading calibre from the United States and the UK for five all-day events to discuss the nature, causes and consequences of changes in the United States’ dominance in the international distribution of power.

As well as producing high-quality substantive outputs, the purpose of the series is to establish a lasting network of scholars of US foreign policy of all career stages, especially fostering ties between senior American scholars and younger scholars from the UK.

Dr Adam Quinn of Birmingham led the series, with a core tem of co-investigators Michael Cox (LSE), Nicholas Kitchen, (LSE), Stuart Croft (Warwick) Oz Hassan (Warwick) Inderjeet Parmar (City, London), Xenia Dormandy (Chatham House), Rory Kinane (Chatham House), Mark Ledwidge (Canterbury Christ Church). Each institution hosted one event on a dedicated sub-theme within the overarching agenda.

Notable invited participants at Series events included a number of International Relations scholars from the United States, e.g. Barry Posen (MIT), William Wohlforth (Dartmouth), representatives of the world of policy community such as Matthew Burrows (Atlantic Council), Robert Wescott (Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy), as well as representatives from the US Embassy, Foreign & Commonwealth Office and media, e.g. New York Times.

Project aims and objectives

In general terms, the series sought to promote meaningful dialogue between scholars and policy professionals, advance discussion of the topic on which it was focused, and foster a lasting network of scholars at varied career stages focused on American foreign policy.

Outputs

Concrete outputs of the Series will include a final report on ‘The Future of American Power’ to be authored by Adam Quinn, as well as academic publications, including a special issue of a journal. These will be available in 2015