Walter Russell Mead on Trump’s Trade Wars and the Global Order

Walter Russell Mead, senior scholar at Bard Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) and Hannah Arendt Center, discusses the current crisis of the “rules-based world order” or “liberal international order,” which was established and has been upheld by America since the end of World War II. This US-led system of globalization is breaking down due to geopolitical challenges, internal ideological fracturing, and institutional collapse. Mead asserts that rather than finding ways to shore up this global system as Biden attempted, Trump “seems to be looking past it to some new and perhaps unshaped international system, one in which international law and international systems are weaker and national sovereignty is protected.” Mead recently spoke on this subject at an on-campus event, sponsored by CCE and the Alexander Hamilton Society at Bard, “Unpacking the Trump Agenda: A Conversation with Walter Mead.”

Post Date: 04-15-2025