knowledgesm

Global Affairs Session 64 06 July 2026 US AT 250: WHAT LIES AHEAD A powerful nation at a turning point At 250, the United States remains powerful, inventive and globally central, yet more divided, selective and contested than in its postwar heyday. Its greatest story is the expansion of liberty; its deepest wound is unequal freedom. The next era may bring less American order, more bargaining, rivalry and institutional fragility worldwide.

Global Affairs Session 32 THE END OF HISTORY: WHAT FUKUYAMA GOT WRONG Liberal democracy, ideological victory and the return of power competition Francis Fukuyama argued that liberal democracy had outlasted fascism and communism as the strongest model of political order. The decades that followed, however, brought renewed authoritarianism, nationalism, populism and great-power rivalry. His thesis remains valuable not as a prediction that events would stop, but as a continuing debate about whether any political system can rival liberal democracy in legitimacy and appeal.

Global Affairs Session 14 14 April 2026 MESSY NEW WORLD ORDER AWAITS US A messy multilateralism awaits The United States built the post-1945 order and remained its dominant pole until China emerged as a second true pole. Washington preferred a controlled transition, but Russia’s 2022 system shock, Iran’s regional leverage, Europe’s uneven rise and the manoeuvring of swing states are producing a fragmented, layered and transactional order instead.