Crimea, China, and the Challenges of Risk Management
In the first session of CFR's symposium on Risk and Strategy for the Changing World, CFR President Richard N. Haass and Lawrence Freedman of King's College London discuss the changing perceptions of strategic risk in the post-Cold War era with Walter Russell Mead of Bard College. The dissolution of the Soviet Union marked the end of a relatively stable international system characterized by a balance between two great powers. In its place, a new landscape populated by rising regional powers, weak states, failing states, and non-state actors has profoundly changed traditional understandings of vital sovereign interests and strategic risk. The panelists highlight the crisis in Ukraine and China's maritime claims as two potential hotspots where the risk of conflict is particularly high. This session was part of a CFR symposium, Risk and Strategy for the Changing World, which was made possible by the generous support of Rita E. Hauser, and organized in cooperation with King's College London. Introductory Speaker: Rita E. Hauser, President, The Hauser Foundation; Chair, International Peace Institute Speaker: Lawrence D. Freedman, Professor of War Studies, King's College London; Author, "Strategy: A History" Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations Presider: Walter Mead, James Clarke Chace Chair in Foreign Affairs and Humanities, Bard College
