Philip Cunliffe
The National Interest

The peak of globalization is behind us, and not merely due to the Trump administration’s trade and foreign policies. With states being forced anew to earn their position in the international order, a new debate about the meaning of their national interest is urgently needed. “Putting America First” might have a ring to it, but what does it mean for any nation – say, Britain – to follow its interests?

The concept of ‘national interest’, however, is conspicuous from public life by its absence. All too often, the question is seen as parochial. Even political leaders, more used to making their case to the world at large than to their fellow citizens, treat the question of the national interest as an embarrassment.

Philip Cunliffe suggests that states will not be able to rise to present challenges without the legitimacy conferred by the pursuit of the national interest. Instead of considering the national concern merely as a matter of foreign policy, Cunliffe places the matter as central to the state’s internal democratic politics. Globalising political leaders and bureaucrats smothered the idea of the national interest over the past thirty years. We must now revive it to restore our democratic strengths.

The event will launch Cunliffe’s new book The National Interest: Politics After Globalization.