Roundtable: The Nature of Post-Western Order with Amitav Acharya

This is a joint event organised by the Oxford Martin Programme on Changing Global Orders and the Oxford Martin School

Drawing on Amitav Acharya’s new book, which argues that world order is not the monopoly of any civilization or nation, the panel will discuss three key questions: Firstly, has world order been a shared creation, as the book argues? Secondly, will the end of Western dominance be a “good or bad thing,” ? And finally, what might be the shape of the “next” world order -- a return to multipolarity or bipolarity, a revival of US hegemony, a world order of regions, or a “multiplex” world?   

Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC.

His recent books include The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West (Basic Books 2025),  Constructing Global Order (Cambridge 2018); The End of American World Order (Polity 2014, 2018) and The Making of Global International Relations (Cambridge 2019: with Barry Buzan). His articles have appeared in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Peace Research, International Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, and World Politics. A Past President of the International Studies Association (ISA), he is the winner of three ISA Distinguished Scholar Awards, that respectively cite his "contribution to non-Western IR theory and inclusion;” “influence, intellectual works and mentorship” in the field of international organisation; and “extraordinary impact” in globalising the study of International Relations.