July 15, 2026, 9:02 am
Professor Amitav Acharya’s recent book, The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West (London and New York, Basic Books, 2025) offers a 5000 year history of world ordering, encompassing Asia, Africa, the Islamic world, the Mediterranean, Americas, Europe, "the West" and more. He sees the contemporary world order as a shared creation: its key elements – empires, independent states, diplomacy, peace treaties, rules-based inter-state cooperation, freedom of the seas, open trading
systems, and humanitarian values – have come from multiple locations around the world.
With the dominant position of the West under challenge, Professor Acharya asks what might be the shape of the next world order: multipolarity, bipolarity, revival of US hegemony, a world of regions, or a de-centered and pluralistic "multiplex" world led by the Global South? He also reflects on the reactions to his book and how recent developments, especially the first year of Trump 2 US presidency, resonate with the book’s main arguments and address the future of multilateralism in a "world-minus-the one"(the US). His talk will also draw implications for middle powers like Australia and the Indo-Pacific countries.
Content Creator – Australian Institute of International Affairs
