Prof. Hennayake’s presentation at the Security Salon primarily focused on geopolitics and the role the United States plays in shaping the changing world order. He provided a comprehensive overview of the fundamental concepts relevant to modern geopolitics - the State; sovereignty; national interests; boundaries and spheres of influence; and new actors that also play a role in modern geopolitics such as international organisations and terrorist organizations. In his explanation of these concepts, Prof. Hennayake emphasized the fact that geo-politics is decided by the State and thereby sovereignty is enforced by the State alone.
Integral to Prof. Hennayake’s presentation was outlining the boundaries of the current world order. Despite there being no universally accepted conception for the world order, Prof. Hennayake stated that through a geo-political lens the conception of the world order is that of a dynamic one. He suggested that the existing States in this order operate according to the Realist theory of the projection of State power and a balance of power.
Thereafter, the speaker elaborated on the international relations theories that have laid the foundation for the study of the geo-political world order. This included Wallerstein’s (1974) “World System Theory”, Samuel Hungtington’s “Clash of Civilizations” and Kissinger’s most recent “Balance of Power”. Having contextualized the changing world order, he went on to ground the United States role in this order. Prof. Hennayake established the fact that the United States maintains the status quo and is the current hegemon. He stated in this regard that the United States system should not be seen as exclusive to the United States itself but rather as the world system in place today. He provided the example of the global financial crisis which emanated in the United States but had repercussions world wide.
The latter part of the presentation focused on explaining the acceptance of United States hegemony in the current world order by regional powers such as India, China, the European Union and Russia. The speaker evidenced the role of the United States as the creator and shaper of the world order by eluding to the geopolitical hotspots or spheres of influence that the United States currently dictates. These examples included the US countering the growing influence of China in the South China Sea, its interjection into the Russia-Ukraine crisis, its continued role through a military capacity in the Middle East as well as its relations with Europe in dictating the future of NATO.
Thus, Prof. Hennayake’s presentation ultimately challenged the liberal or globalist ideology through the lens of the geo-political dominance of the United States in the manifestation and maintenance of the current world order. The main take-aways from the lecture were the primacy of the nation-state in governing geo-politics and the “America first” policy as the “leader of the free world” which was set up after World War II and continues to be championed by President Trump today, albeit in a different form.
Sri Lanka’s role in the changing world order was addressed in the final part of the lecture as being brought into the fold of the geo-political orbit. Prof. Hennayake stated that Sri Lanka’s role in geo-politics in the past as well as the present is mainly dictated by its neighbour and regional hegemon of India. Sri Lanka’s role overlaps between India’s and China’s spheres of influence in the Asian region and thus he emphasized the need for the island not to equate the choice between China and India as a zero-sum decision, stating that geographical proximity of States to each other is the unchangeable crux that shapes geo-politics.
Thereafter, members of the Diplomatic community, armed forces and other invitees were engaged in a discussion on the dynamic nature of the world order, the role of individual political leadership in shaping the rise or fall of a world power and the rising global terrorism and its role in geopolitics. The round-table discussion also centred around the use of soft-power diplomacy. In this context, Prof. Hennayake stated that Sri Lanka is an expendable small geo-political state and thus we should look to leverage on our strategic location with both China and India. He warned that not adopting this geo-political approach in the current world order may render Sri Lanka as a prime stage for a proxy war between regional and global powers; such was the context of the frontiers of the Cold War between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The discussion concluded with the agreement that Sri Lanka should continue its stance on being ‘friends of all, enemy to none.’