The Global Order in Crisis:
What Comes Next?
Virtual Briefing Series
Wednesday, January 21, 2026 | 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM ET
Since the end of World War II, the global order has been shaped largely by a Western liberal system led by the United States. Yet, recent developments, from the release of the U.S. National Security Strategy to the January capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro by U.S. forces have underscored what many observers of international affairs argue is the end of that liberal, rules-based order. At the same time, rapid technological advancement and the rise of other powers, particularly China, further complicate the picture, dispersing power, shifting economic and political ties, and, in some cases invigorating and redirecting global institutions. How dead is the U.S.-led rules-based order? What, if anything, might replace it? And what might such a transition look like? Will the emerging international system be relatively peaceful and cooperative, or defined by heightened competition and conflict? What roles will major powers play in shaping a new order or disorder or is reform of the existing rules-based system still possible? Finally, will the United States continue to act as a global enforcer, or retreat into a more unilateral and unpredictable role?
Join us on Wednesday, January 21, from 12:00 to 1:00 PM ET for a virtual panel discussion featuring Professor Amitav Acharya, UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance, and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service at American University, and author of The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West; Professor Daniel Drezner, Academic Dean and Distinguished Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University; and Professor Stacie Goddard, the Betty Freyhof Johnson ’44 Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost for Wellesley in the World at Wellesley College. Together, they will explore these questions and assess what the future may hold for the international order.
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SPEAKERS:
Professor Amitav Acharya
Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. Previously he was a Professor at York University, Toronto and the University of Bristol, U.K. He is currently Honorary Professor, Rhodes University and Professor Extraordinarius, University of Pretoria (both in South Africa), and Guest Professor, Nankai University, China. He was the inaugural Boeing Company Chair in International Relations at the Schwarzman Scholars Program at Tsinghua University, Fellow of Harvard’s Asia Center and John F. Kennedy School of Government, and Christensen Fellow at Oxford. His books include The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West (Basic Books 2025); 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); The Making of Southeast Asia (Cornell 2013); and Whose Ideas Matter (Cornell 2009). His essays have appeared in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Asian Studies, Foreign Affairs, Journal of Peace Research, International Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, and World Politics. He has written op-eds for New York Times, Financial Times, Washington Post, Times of India, and other newspapers around the world, and appeared on news media such as CNN International, BBC TV and BBC World Service Radio. He is the first non-Western scholar to be elected (for 2014-15) the President of the International Studies Association (ISA), the largest and most influential global network in international studies. He has received three ISA Distinguished Scholar Awards. In 2020, he received American University’s highest honor: Scholar-Teacher of the Year Award.
Professor Daniel W. Drezner
Daniel W. Drezner is Academic Dean and Distinguished Professor of International Politics at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, a nonresident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and an academic partner at State Street Associates. Prior to Fletcher, he taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has previously held positions with Civic Education Project, RAND and the Treasury Department. Drezner has written seven books, including The Ideas Industry, and edited three others. He has been a contributing editor for Foreign Policy, The National Interest, the Washington Post. He publishes the newsletter Drezner’s World.
Professor Stacie Goddard
Professor Stacie Goddard is the Betty Freyhof Johnson ‘44 Professor of Political Science and Associate Provost for Wellesley in the World at Wellesley College. Her research and teaching focuses on questions of great power competition and international order. Her latest book, When Right Makes Might: Rising Powers and World Order was published by Cornell University Press in 2018. Other writing has appeared in International Organization, International Security, and Security Studies, as well as Foreign Affairs, the New York Times and the Washington Post. She is a series editor for Columbia University Press.
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