7. Oktober 2026

Wednesday, 7 October 2026, Time: 4 pm - 6 pm

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the war in Gaza, Trump's attacks on multilateralism and free trade, and most recently the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran: many observers argue that we are witnessing a historic rupture in the liberal international order. Indeed, the fundamental principles of that order are under considerable pressure. What we are seeing are deep contestations - challenges that do not merely question individual rules or policies but the order itself. Yet contestation is not inherently problematic. On the contrary, normal contestation is constructive and even constitutive of liberal orders, as it enables their adaptation and renewal. It is therefore key to the order’s resilience. Deep contestations, by contrast, challenge the legitimacy and foundations of the order as such. Our argument, however, is that these developments do not signal the end of the rules-based international order, as is often claimed. In this seminar, we introduce different types of contestation and discuss what determines the resilience of international order.

Speakers from both law and political science will explore how strengthening this resilience requires institutional reform that expands opportunities for both state and non-state actors to participate in ordinary forms of contestation.

'Deep Contestations of the Liberal International Order' edited by Antje Wiener, David A Lake, and Thomas Risse, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2026

Open Access, available here: https://academic.oup.com/book/62001

Speakers:
Prof Giovanni Mantilla, University of Cambridge
Dr Alena Drieschova, University of Cambridge
Prof Jan Klabbers, University of Cambridge
Prof Markus Gehring, University of Cambridge
Prof Antje Wiener, University of Hamburg

Register here if attending online.

Website of the event of the University of Cambridge