On Wednesday, September 22nd, Dr. Ionut Popescu of the Department of Political Science kicked off Pi Sigma Alpha’s 2021-2022 lecture series with a lecture on the future of U.S. foreign policy towards China. As the War on Terror concludes, he observed, the United States is shifting its strategic goals towards competition with powerful states, especially China.
Dr. Popescu discussed the two most widely advocated approaches to the challenge posed by China: deep engagement, which seeks to establish and preserve a peaceful liberal-democratic world order in opposition to China, and retrenchment, which seeks to isolate the United States from the world and abandon its established hegemony. Against these conventional stances, Dr. Popescu presented his own alternative approach: “offensive realism.” Offensive realism seeks to compete directly with China technologically, economically, and militarily without instigating war.
The lecture was met with enthusiastic reviews, with one student noting that Popescu’s “unique model” offered an interesting perspective on “how to deal with this emerging crisis.” Another student said that he “was glad [he] did not miss the talk.” More than 30 students were in attendance.
Founded in 1920, Pi Sigma Alpha is the national honors society for political science. The Texas State Chapter, Rho Eta, was established in 1988 and over the last thirty years has hosted a variety of lectures and community-service projects. If you are interested in Pi Sigma Alpha, please contact Nicholas James, nrj16@txstate.edu.
