Confronting Inequality: Wealth, Rights, and Power

by Hugh Liebert, Alice Darnell Lattal (Contributor)

Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic increase in global wealth, health, and political participation. Most have benefited from these developments. Some have benefited considerably more than others. As a result, "inequality" has become a watchword among policymakers, academics, activists, and revolutionaries. Which inequalities are likely to increase and which decrease as global development proceeds? Which forms of inequality are justifiable, and which serve United States’ interests? How should United States foreign policy respond to an increasingly prosperous world in which prosperity is unequally distributed? The contributors to this volume address these and related questions, in essays that cast students as policymakers on the cusp of consequential decisions. We live in a world where concepts of security, strength, and power are in flux—a world that requires not just force or diplomacy, but true leadership that integrates the two. And in this world of rapid change, I believe that economic inequality is one of the most significant challenges policymakers must address….. Those tasked with helping steer the ship of state in the twenty-first century—civilian and military—will have to understand and confront the challenge of inequality here at home and abroad. The chapters collected in this volume contribute to this important goal. —Madeline Albright, 64th U.S. Secretary of State, from the Foreword to this volume

232 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2016