After American Hegemony: Navigating a disrupted international order

A Symposium held in partnership between T.wai and LSE IDEAS, in cooperation with DIST -Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning of the Politecnico di Torino and the University of Turin.

Sala dello Zodiaco, Castello del Valentino, Viale Mattioli 39, Turin

The end of the American domination has featured in declinist literature on the United States, starting from Keohane’s After Hegemony (1984), followed by Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of Great Powers (1988) to Cooley and Nexon’ Exit from Hegemony (2020) and most recently, Mahbubani’s Has China Won? The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy (2020). The underlying assumption is that now and for the foreseeable future, the US will no longer be what they used to be on the global stage and that the source of relative decline is to be found in domestic conditions. Indeed with the launching of the Iran war, the dismantling and re-ordering of the international political economy and regional security arrangements are already taking shape.

What is the present and future of international relations and global governance in a world in which the US ceases to perform its traditional post-WW2 roles and actively act in a roguish way against values, norms, institutions and allies they used to stand up for? How are domestic politics informing a populist transnationalist movement in Europe and the rest of the world? In this changing context can middle powers, as articulated by Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in January 2026, foster an alternative international order and will it still be ‘liberal’? What impact has the aggressive turn in economic statecraft and military intervention had in informing foreign, economic and security policy approaches in other regions in the world?

8.30-9.00 Guests arrival

9.00-9.15 Welcome and opening remarks (Stefano Ruzza, Chris Alden)

9.15-9.45 Keynote speech: the End of the Liberal Internation Order and the Rise of a ‘Middle Power Order’?

Richard Higgott, EUI

9.45-11.15 Panel 1: The US U-turn, from within

Chair: Chris Alden (LSE Ideas)

• American Distopia – Fabio Armao (University of Turin and T.wai) and Davide Pellegrino (University of Turin)
• Trump, the Rex Destruens: America’s Cold Civil War After Trump – Mattia Diletti (La Sapienza, University of Rome)
• American Populism and the Role of the Media – Patrick Scriven (LSE Ideas)

11.15-11.30 Break

11.30-13.00 Panel 2: The US and the post-Liberal International Order

Chair: Giulia Grillo (LSE Ideas)

• Fragmentation, Middle Powers and the (re)emerging Regionalism – Chris Alden (LSE Ideas)
• From Economic Interdependence to Economic Security: The Post- American Order – Francesco Giumelli (University of Groningen)
• Finding European Security in post-US defense arrangements – Peter Watkins (LSE Ideas)

13.00-14.30 Lunch Break

14.30-16.15 Panel 3: The change, seen from the outside

Chair: Stefano Ruzza (University of Turin and T.wai)

• Losing the West, gaining the Rest? The EU in the changing world order – Licina Simao (University of Coimbra)
• What the Russians see in Trump and why – Alberto Masoero (University of Turin)
• The South African and the African perspectives – Garth Le Pere (University of Johannesburg)
• The Indo-Pacific perspective – Giuseppe Gabusi (University of Turin and T.wai)

16.15-16.30 Closing remarks (Chris Alden, Stefano Ruzza)