The US must wake up to a multipolar world by welcoming China to the table
Paola Subacchi says by pursuing containment, America risks losing the ability to shape the future
Giving up the spotlight is never easy. The United States, like many ageing celebrities, is struggling to share the stage with new faces, especially China. The upcoming meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - two institutions dominated by the US and its Western allies - provide an ideal opportunity to change that.
The US must come to terms with the reality that the world has changed. The longer America remains in a state of denial, the more damage it will do to its interests and its global influence, which remains substantial, if more constrained than before.
The world no longer adheres to the static cold war order. Nor does it work according to the Pax Americana that dominated in the decade after the Soviet Union's collapse.
Today's world is underpinned by a multipolar order, which emerged from the rise of developing economies - most notably China - as major actors in trade and finance. The US - not to mention the other G7 countries - must now compete and cooperate not only with China, but also with India, Brazil and others through expanded forums like the G20.
To this end, the US must show leadership and adaptability. It cannot refuse to support China's efforts to expand its role in global governance. Nor should it issue harsh rebukes to its allies when they do not follow suit, as it did when Britain announced its intention to join the new China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
The US seems to be stuck in the Bretton Woods system, the rules-based order - underpinned by the IMF and World Bank, with the US dollar at its heart - that emerged after the second world war.
Over the years, however, that system, with its mix of liberal multilateralism and market-oriented economic policies, has come to symbolise the Anglo-American dominance of the global economy that much of the world now criticises. In particular, the Washington Consensus - the set of free-market principles that influences the policies of the IMF, the World Bank, the US and Britain - has generated considerable resentment, especially after the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s.
