Competing Visions for International Order

Questions of international order are arguably more relevant today than at any point in the post-Cold War era. The global power hierarchy is shifting, the world is also beset by increasingly tense relations between the great powers, and the so-called liberal international order is coming apart. To make matters worse, the old order is fraying at a time when cooperative solutions are paramount to answering global challenges from climate, energy, food, and migration crises to disruptive technological developments.

Great powers have traditionally played an outsized role in reordering international relations during ruptures. However, such reordering requires not only material capabilities but also the willingness on the part of these powers to articulate and put into practice a vision of order that others find acceptable. Periods of profound uncertainty are therefore conducive to the emergence of different and potentially competing visions of ordering.

But what kinds of visions are these, and to what extent are they reconcilable? What are the prospects of agreeing upon a shared direction for international order writ large in the coming decades?

This panel will explore these vital questions by focusing on the ordering visions of five key powers: the United States, China, India, Turkey and Russia.

The event will also celebrate the launch of the book Competing Visions for International Order: Challenges for a Shared Direction in an Age of Global Contestation, edited by Ville Sinkkonen, Veera Laine and Matti Puranen.

Programme

Panelists:
Toni Alaranta, Senior Research Fellow, FIIA
Bart Gaens, Senior Research Fellow, FIIA
Veera Laine, Senior Researcher, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland
Matti Puranen, Associate Professor, Finnish National Defence University
Ville Sinkkonen, Leading Researcher, FIIA

Comments:
Teivo Teivainen, Professor of World Politics, University of Helsinki

Chair:
Tyyne Karjalainen, Research Fellow, FIIA

Picture: iStock