Can We Create a Better World Order? Geopolitical Talk with Stephen Walt

Humanity is at a Gramscian moment when “one world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born.” The Cold War order ended in 1992, and the U.S. attempt to construct a global liberal order collapsed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the failed wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the global resurgence of populism and authoritarianism. This lecture and discussion will examine the forces that are undermining the current geopolitical order and consider how states can build a new order to preserve the conditions required for sustained human existence, reduce the risk of war, manage the movement of goods, capital, information, and people, and encourage respect for basic human rights—issues that are especially urgent as the world turns its gaze toward the U.S. elections on 5 November, which may fundamentally reshape this global landscape.

Stephen Walt is the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School. He previously taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago, and was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005. Walt is a columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, where he comments regularly on global affairs. His most recent book is The Hell of Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy. From September to December 2024, he is a Guest of the Institute at the IWM.

Ivan Krastev, IWM Permanent Fellow and Director of the Centre for Liberal Studies in Sofia, Bulgaria.