U.S.-China Competition & Global South Strategy: The Quincy Institute

As the world continues to move away from the unipolar structure born after the end of the ColdWar, it also risks fracturing into competing and rival orders.

The Better Order Project contends that the way forward is neither the promotion of a coalition of like-minded states under the so-called rules-based international order, nor the advent of a rival order dominated by other great powers. The increasingly diffuse balance of power and the rising influence of the Global South together ensure that no state — or group of states — can set the terms of the international order unilaterally.

To ensure peace, stability, and a fighting chance against transnational threats, the world needs enhanced norms and laws to rejuvenate an inclusive global order rooted in international law, multilateralism, and the ability of states to participate on an equal basis.

To help guide states in this effort and stabilize an international order in transition, the Quincy Institute’s network of 130+ experts, scholars, and practitioners from more than 40 countries has developed 20 proposals across seven policy areas, all of which blend boldness and ambition with political realism.

Sarang Shidore is director of the Global South Program at the Quincy Institute. He was also a member of the adjunct faculty at George Washington University, where he taught a class on the geopolitics of climate change. He researches and writes on the geopolitics of the Global South, Asia, and climate change. Sarang has published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Nation, South China Morning Post, The Diplomat, Council on Foreign Relations, Energy Policy, Energy Research & Social Science and others. He currently also serves as co-lead in the think-tank track (T20) of the G20 meetings. Prior to his current role, Sarang was director of studies at the Quincy Institute, senior research scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, and senior global analyst at the geopolitical risk firm Stratfor Inc. and previously also spent more than a decade in engineering and product management in the technology industry.

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