The Once and Future World Order (02.13.26)

Join us at the Pardee School of Global Studies on Friday, February 13, for a book talk by Amitav Acharya, UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University. Moderated by Min Ye, Professor of International Relations & Interim Director, Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston University.

In his book, The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West, Prof. Acharya shows how the West has never had a monopoly on order and that its decline could be a good thing for the world.

Surveying five thousand years of global history, Acharya reveals that world order existed long before the rise of the West. Moving from ancient Sumer, India, Greece, and Mesoamerica, through medieval caliphates and Eurasian empires into the present, he shows that humanitarian values, economic interdependence, and rules of inter-state conduct emerged across the globe over millennia. History suggests order will endure even as the West retreats. In fact, the end of Western dominance offers us the opportunity to build a better world, where non-Western nations find more voice, power, and prosperity. Instead of fearing the future, Acharya argues that the West should learn from history and cooperate with the Rest to forge a more equitable order.