World order: definition and description

Tue 21 April 2015

Law, Faculty of

World order is one of the fundamental concepts of international relations, as well as a lens through which to view and understand global developments and foreign policy choices. The first lecture, on the past, will discuss the concept of world order and trace its evolution and changing elements in the modern era, beginning with the end of the 30 Years War and the Treaty of Westphalia, through the 19th century Concert of Europe that followed the Congress of Vienna, the various breakdowns of order in the late 19th century and first half of the twentieth, the four decades of Cold War, and finally (and in the greatest detail ) the post-Cold War era that has been our reality for some twenty-five years now. The second lecture, on the present state of world order, begins where the previous talk left off, and will focus on the many sources and manifestations of order and disorder in the current period. These first two lectures will be mostly historical and analytical in nature. The third lecture, on prospects for world order, will also be analytical in part, but it will necessarily be predictive as well as prescriptive, suggesting what needs doing if the balance between order and disorder will over time favor the former.

Cost: Free