On the evening of October 22, the University of Chicago Center in Beijing welcomed back John Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, to give a talk on why U.S. Foreign Policy after the Cold War was doomed to fail. Titled “The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities”, the talk attracted over 80 people. Zhao Hai, a Research Fellow with the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and a UChicago PhD. in History, moderated the event.
Drawing from his most recent book, Professor Mearsheimer spoke about how U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War was bound to fail in the long term. After first defining terms common to political science, such as realism, liberalism and nationalism, Professor Mearsheimer proceeded to show why his international relations theory suggested post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy would fail and how this manifested in real world events during the last 20-30 years. Professor Mearsheimer’s intriguing talk was followed by a lively Q&A discussion session with the audience.
