"The Once and Future World Order: Why the West Needs to Work with 'the Rest'"

Professor Amitav Acharya
American University, Washington D.C.

Who makes world order? In this lecture Amitav Acharya argues that world order is not the monopoly of any civilization or nation. Just as it is wrong to give the Greeks exclusive credit for contemporary democracy, so is it to deny others - India, Africa, Islam, China, Mongols, and pre Columbian Americas - agency for devising principles and mechanisms of world order. Acharya argues three major forms of world order: independent states, empires, and tributary systems, are non-European in origin, as are important ways to preserve peace such as great power cooperation, freedom of the seas, humanitarian values, racial equality and the rules-based order. Yet, the ideas and contributions of non-Western civilizations through history have been forgotten or dismissed.

The end of Western dominance need not mean the collapse of world order. On the contrary, a world order where non-Western nations have a greater voice will create a more equitable and mutually respectful global arrangement. While no world order can be free from conflict, the West – now facing a mortal danger from Trumpist populism - should embrace the inevitable and work with “the Rest”. In doing so, it could create new conditions and mechanisms for stability, prosperity, and justice. Burying the “West-versus-the Rest” mindset is a central challenge for our age.

Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. This lecture draws on his forthcoming book of the same name, which was listed by the journal Foreign Policy as one of its “Most Anticipated Books of 2025”.

Acharya’s major works include: Re-imagining International Relations (Cambridge 2022, with Barry Buzan), The Making of Global International Relations (Cambridge 2019: with Barry Buzan); Constructing Global Order (Cambridge 2018); The End of American World Order (Polity 2014, 2018); Why Govern? Rethinking Demand and Progress in Global Governance (editor, Cambridge 2016); The Making of Southeast Asia (Cornell 2013); and Whose Ideas Matter (Cornell University Press 2009). His articles and op-eds have appeared in leading journals and periodicals including, The Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Times of India, Australian Financial Review, and YaleGlobal Online.

The lecture will be followed by refreshments.