CISAC's Stephen Stedman and partners from the Brookings Institution and New York University released a comprehensive set of foreign policy recommendations for the next U.S. president in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 20, a week after the project was unveiled at Stanford.

Executive Summary

On Nov. 20, the Managing Global Insecurity project--a joint effort of Brookings, Stanford University and New York University--released a comprehensive set of foreign policy recommendations for the next U.S. president and other world leaders to address the most critical challenges facing the world today. The launch followed an unveiling of the project Nov. 13 during Stanford's 2008 FSI Conference (FSI International Conference: Transitions 2009).

American and global leaders face a choice: they can either use this moment to help shape an international, rule-based order that will protect their global interests, or resign themselves to an ad hoc international system where they are increasingly powerless to shape the course of international affairs.

The 21st century will be defined by security threats unconstrained by borders--from climate change, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism to conflict, poverty, disease, and economic instability. The greatest test of global leadership will be building partnerships and institutions for cooperation that can meet the challenge. Although all states have a stake in solutions, responsibility for a peaceful and prosperous world will fall disproportionately on the traditional and rising powers. The United States, most of all, must provide leadership for a global era.

U.S. domestic and international opinions are converging around the urgent need to build an international security system for the 21st century. Global leaders increasingly recognize that alone they are unable to protect their interests and their citizens-national security has become interdependent with global security.

Just as the founders of the United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions after World War II began with a vision for international cooperation based on a shared assessment of threat and a shared notion of sovereignty, today's global powers must chart a new course for today's greatest challenges and opportunities. International cooperation today must be built on the principle of responsible sovereignty, or the notion that sovereignty entails obligations and duties toward other states as well as to one's own citizens.