The Global Disorder Group at City St George’s hosted an event featuring Professor Amitav Acharya, who presented his latest book, The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West.

The event took place in person and online and was chaired by Dr Sasikumar Sundaram. It marked the launch of Professor Acharya’s new work, which offers a provocative rethinking of global order in light of Western decline. Rather than seeing the weakening of Western dominance as a crisis, Acharya argued that it presents a constructive opportunity for reshaping world order around more inclusive, pluralistic foundations.

The discussion focused on the dynamics of global disorder, the shifting role of the West, and the growing agency of Global South states in influencing international norms and institutions. The event also explored key challenges to the existing liberal international order and highlighted emerging areas of research on disorder, civilizational politics, and the future of global governance.

About the Speaker

Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. He has previously held academic appointments at York University, Toronto, and the University of Bristol, as well as visiting roles at Rhodes University in South Africa and Nankai University in China.

He was the inaugural Boeing Company Chair in International Relations at the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University and has been a Fellow at Harvard’s Asia Center and Kennedy School of Government, as well as a Christensen Fellow at Oxford.

His publications 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), and several other influential works on global governance and regionalism.

Professor Acharya’s writing has appeared in leading academic journals including International Organization, International Security, Journal of Peace Research, and World Politics. He has also contributed op-eds to outlets such as the Financial Times, Washington Post, and International Herald Tribune, and has appeared on media including CNN International and the BBC.

He was the first non-Western scholar elected President of the International Studies Association and has received multiple ISA Distinguished Scholar Awards for his contributions to globalising the field of international relations and mentoring the next generation of scholars.