Event Date: September 23, 2025 - 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Location: FSS 4004 and via Zoom, 120 University Private, University of Ottawa

Presented by CIPS and the Asian Studies Network (ASN)

Drawing on his new book covering 5000 years of history, Amitav Acharya shows that world order has never been the monopoly of any civilization or nation. Core foundations of world order: empire, independent states, diplomacy, peace treaties, inter-state cooperation, freedom of the seas, open trading systems, and humanitarian values, emerged from multiple locations around the world. Yet, centuries of Western dominance have obscured the ideas and contributions of other civilizations to world order. The future world order, Acharya concludes, will not be shaped by one, two or a handful of great powers, but by a “global multiplex,”  with many consequential state and non-state actors and in which diversity and interconnectedness will co-exist. While no world order can be free from conflict, the end of Western dominance need not mean the collapse of civilization or world order. Rather it might help mitigate the West-versus-the-Rest divide, and in the longer term, create the basis for a more inclusive world.

Amitav Acharya’s book, “The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West” will be available for purchase at the event.

 Speaker:

Amitav Acharya is Distinguished Professor and the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. Previously, he held professorships at York University, Toronto and University of Bristol, U.K., and fellowships at Harvard and Oxford. He has published numerous article in journals such as International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, World Politics, and Foreign Affairs, as well as in newspapers including New York Times, Washington Post, and Financial Times.

Chair:

Pascale Massot is an associate professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is also non-resident Honorary Fellow, Political Economy at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis in New York, and a Senior Fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada in Vancouver. She is the author of China’s Vulnerability Paradox: How the World’s Largest Consumer Transformed Global Commodity Markets (Oxford University Press, 2024) – Winner of the 2025 Best Book Award in International Political Economy from the International Studies Association and the 2025 Peter Katzenstein Book Prize.