A Symposium held in partnership between T.wai and LSE IDEAS, in cooperation with the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society of the University of Torino.
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)
11.15-11.30 Break
11.30-13.00 Panel 2: The US and the post-Liberal International Order
Chair: Giulia Grillo (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)
16.15-16.30 Closing remarks (Chris Alden, Stefano Ruzza)
