With Dr. Robert Hanlon (Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University)
Social responsibility is becoming increasing political and is shaping how China’s foreign policy architects court an increasingly fractured liberal order. In an era where the United States’ commitment to multilateralism is wavering, prominent thinkers are now asking whether global power dynamics are shifting to Asia. Donald Trump’s hostility towards trade regimes coupled with Beijing’s effort to advance a more assertive foreign policy is disrupting traditional trade networks. As Richard Haass has noted, the international rule-based order is weakened and risks collapse without a committed United States. At the same time, illiberal China has ironically evolved as an advocate of the liberal trading order.
In this talk, Dr. Hanlon furthers the critical discussion emerging within the areas of global governance, political economy and public policy. How do human rights and sustainable development impact the prospects of economic relations between Western states and China? Does the prospect of a rising China influence how governments engineer ‘progressive’ trade agreements? Finally, he hopes to provide a clearer understanding of how fragmented business actors influence trade policy within China.
He argues that progressive-neoliberal states in the West are purposely leveraging human rights and sustainable development as social trade barriers to compete in the Asian Century. Similarly, China is developing a narrative of ‘social responsibility with Chinese characteristics’ to mitigate socio-economic risks for ensuring regime legitimacy at home and abroad. Competitive pluralistic notions of social responsibility are being designed by political actors who are challenging the hegemonic discourse of neo-liberalism which has dominated global trade relations for a generation.
About the speaker: Robert Hanlon is a political scientist, author and consultant whose research explores the links between corruption and human rights in emerging economies. His work on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has appeared throughout scholarly publications and media. His regional area of focus is Asia with a specialization in Greater China and Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA). Click here for more detail.
