NEW PARADIGM
Time for a New Washington Consensus?
Biden's national security advisor Jake Sullivan recently laid out the vision for a new Washington Consensus.
BY
MAREN BUCHHOLTZPUBLISHED
5. MAY 2023
“… this moment demands that we forge a new consensus. That’s why the United States, under President Biden, is pursuing a modern industrial and innovation strategy—both at home and with partners around the world."
Facing accelerating climate breakdown, rising geopolitical risk, and inequalities between and within societies at record highs, the global community is far off track to reaching the Sustainable Developments Goals set in 2015.
According to Sullivan’s reading of the multiple crises facing the world today, a rethinking of the international economic order is long overdue. A core element of this new approach to government seems to be a reappraisal of the role of the state. In his speech, he indicates a turning away from the naïve belief in the omnipotence of the market.
In a recent piece in the New York Magazine, Eric Levitz interpreted the speech as follows:
“Neoliberalism’s loosening grip over American political and intellectual life has created an opening for a progressive reformation of global economic governance. Jake Sullivan’s speech last week confirmed that the Biden administration intends to seize that opportunity.”
At half-time for the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, successful international cooperation will depend on the further concretization of a new economic paradigm.