Is the disorder of our times unprecedented? with Prof Ayse Zarakol

Our century seems especially tumultuous. Many IR scholars think that the uncertainty of our time is not unprecedented, however, and they attribute the disorderliness to power transition or disequilibrium. They project that once a new balance of power emerges the 21st century will not be that different. Others argue that the challenges we face are unprecedented, that we are in a time of polycrisis. In this talk I will argue that while traditional IR theories get the the 21st century wrong, there are some precedents for our times, especially if we look beyond European history.

Accessibility

An access guide to Darwin Building, Lecture Theatre B40 can be found on AccessAble.

About the speaker

Ayşe Zarakol is Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge and a Politics Fellow at Emmanuel College. Zarakol’s academic work is at the intersection of International Relations, Political Science and Historical Sociology. She is the author of more than sixty scholarly articles. Her most recent book, Before the West: the Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders (2022) advanced an alternative global history for International Relations focused on Eurasia. This book has won six international book awards. Zarakol is the 2023 recipient of the Rahmi M. Koç Medal of Science, given annually to one scholar of Turkish origin under 50 for outstanding contributions to their discipline. In 2024, she was elected to the British Academy and Academia Europaea. 

About this event series

Dreams, Desires and Aspirations: Imaginative Landscapes of Prosperity

At UCL Institute for Global Prosperity we are working towards a new model of prosperity for the 21st century, reworking the way we conceive and run our economies, our societies, and our relationship with the planet. Our social and collective imaginaries, dreams, and aspirations are at the core of that mission, not only in understanding how people strive towards ideas of prosperity, but in unearthing how and why different ideas are constructed as they are. This term, we are inviting scholars, novelists, politicians, artists, and film-makers to help us excavate some of the imaginary forces that brought ‘prosperity’ to where it is today, and where it might be taken tomorrow.

Director's Seminars are an opportunity for audiences to get an in-depth theoretical perspective on sustainable and inclusive prosperity. These Seminars are given by academics who are pushing for new ways of thinking and new ways of researching society's grand challenges.

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