Dr. Ian Bremmer, president of
the Eurasia Group, will join us for a discussion of the J curve, a
model for describing how countries transition from stable, closed
autocracies to equally stable, open democracies. Building on a central
relationship between a country’s openness and its stability, in The J Curve: A New Way to Understand How Nations Rise and Fall,
Bremmer provides a framework for understanding the pressures that
motivate leaders of countries at different points along the J curve.
How can policymakers facilitate movement along the curve towards
stable, open regimes? If political instability can produce terrorist,
economic, and other transnational threats, what does the curve imply
for U.S. policy toward relatively stable but closed regimes like North
Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran?
