China, India and the Global Order (or Disorder)

The post-war, liberal international order, led by the United States, is dying if not dead. The emergence of China as an economic technological and, in due course, military power has already led to intense competition and elements of a ’new Cold War’. The emergence of India as a major economic power – the world’s third biggest on some measures – adds complexity to this picture.

What does all this mean for global governance? We are seeing the emergence of the BRICs block and the ‘Global West'; new trade and military alignments in Asia; demands for radical change in the workings of the Bretton Woods Institutions; a challenge to the dominance of the dollar; the Belt and Road Initiative and a Western response; and a fresh ’scramble for Africa’.

This discussion focus on the respective roles of China and India in this new landscape as well as the interaction between them.

More about our speakers and chair

Vince Cable (@vincecable) is Professor in Practice at the School of Public Policy at LSE. He was UK Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and President of the Board of Trade (2010-2015). He was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017-19. He served for 20 years as MP for Twickenham and retired in 2019.

Niall Ferguson (@nfergus) is visiting professor at the LSE School of Public Policy. He is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. A historian by training, Professor Ferguson received his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1989. He has had a distinguished teaching career, having been a professor at Oxford, New York University and Harvard. He is the author of 16 books, and an accomplished biographer and journalist.

Rebecca Nadin is the Director of the Global Risks & Resilience programme at ODI. She has 16+ years’ experience in climate risk and national adaptation planning, designing and managing multi-stakeholder climate change initiatives and policy formulation at the national and sectoral level. Rebecca is a respected China specialist with a deep knowledge of the Chinese political system and foreign policy, including the BRI.

Andrés Velasco (@AndresVelasco) is Professor of Public Policy and Dean of the School of Public Policy at LSE. He was previously the Minister of Finance of Chile between March 2006 and March 2010.


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