Is the Disorder of Our Times Unprecedented?

Abstract: Most observers – at least in the West – agree that the twenty-first century has been particularly tumultuous. But while some explain the volatility of our times by reference to historical analogies, e.g. moments of power transition in the twentieth century, others claim that we are in a moment of polycrisis for which there is no precedent. In this talk I split the difference: mainstream IR is wrong to assume the 21st century will resemble the 20th, but there are other historical precedents we can use to better theorise about our current predicament.

Ayşe Zarakol is Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge, where she is also a Politics Fellow affiliated with Emmanuel College. The main themes of Zarakol’s research are East-West relations and social hierarchies in world politics, problems of modernity and sovereignty, rising and declining powers, history and future of international order. She is the author of After Defeat: How the East Learned to Live with the West (Cambridge UP, 2011) and Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders (Cambridge UP, 2022), and the editor of Hierarchies in World Politics (Cambridge UP, 2017). Before the West has won six awards, including the SSHA and ISA annual best book prizes. In 2023, Zarakol was awarded the 8th Rahmi M. Koç Medal of Science in Turkey (and the first one in International Relations). In 2024, she was elected to fellowship in the British Academy and the Academia Europea. Also in 2024, she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen. At the moment, Zarakol is overseeing an international research collaboration on Global Disorder funded by a British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Grant. She is also one of the two Associate Editors of International Organization. Her next book, Ozymandias, is a world history of strongmen, aimed at a general audience. This book is under contract with William Collins (UK) and Grove Atlantic (US).

Moderation: Jan Yasin Sunca, Université libre de Bruxelles

Registration required by March 12 : https://forms.office.com/e/CmM3arahXU?origin=lprLink

Friday, March 14th, 2025, from 12:00 to 1:30 pm
REPI - Université libre de Bruxelles
Campus du Solbosch – REPI RT39 Spaak Room
39 Avenue Franklin Roosevelt
1050 Bruxelles

Flyer: PDF