Shannon O'Neil

Shannon O'Neil is senior vice president of studies and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she leads CFR’s David Rockefeller Studies Program and fellowship programs. She is a foreign-policy and geoeconomics expert focused on global trade, supply chains, Mexico, Latin America, and U.S. economic competitiveness.

Middle Powers Need U.S. Power to Resist Chinese Coercion

Middle powers are seeking leverage between a less reliable Washington and a more coercive Beijing, but the speakers argued that coordination cannot substitute for American power. In a Jonathan Capehart-moderated Aspen Ideas Festival panel, Chrystia Freeland, Sadanand Dhume, and Shannon O’Neil said countries outside the two dominant powers need deeper cooperation, but remain constrained by divergent interests, supply-chain dependence, collective-action problems, and the continuing indispensability of the United States.

The Aspen InstituteJul 2, 202619 min read