Liberal bloc

MARK LEONARD, Director at the European Council on Foreign Relations states that Beijing's diplomacy could be characterized as defensive multilateralism, where it joined international organizations such as the UN, WTO etc. to protect its own interests rather than to support the broader goals of those institutions and this approach had been relatively successful in changing the global order and reducing international pressure on states such as North Korea, Myanmar and Iran. In an op-ed in the Süddeutsche Zeitung,"How to deal with a more assertive China?", he calls for a more assertive Western approach that would preserve the liberal bias in the international system with the EU and the US acting in concert to break up illiberal international coalitions and focus on integrating states such as India, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil into the liberal bloc.