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Abstract: There is a broad consensus today that the international order is in crisis. Calls to protect, improve, or reform its institutions and rules are proliferating. Underlying these is a view of international order as self-evident and fixed, at least until quite recently, anchored in a broad consensus that is now being destabilized by revisionist actors. This lecture interrogates this premise and puts it in perspective, showing that the current crisis of international order is best understood as a clash of competing narratives about what a legitimate order ought to look like, who gets to be situated within or outside of it, and who is in a position to claim the authority of making this distinction. The talk makes a case for going beyond a focus on material interests and strategic motives in attempts to understand the ongoing transformation of world politics in the present era, highlighting the power of narratives, and the necessity of making international order strange instead of taking it for granted. 

Stéphanie Martel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Studies at ³ÉÈË´óƬ. She is currently a Visiting Scholar at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and at the Centre for International Policy Studies. Her research is on multilateral diplomacy, gender and security, and regional governance, with a focus on Southeast Asia, ASEAN, and the Asia/Indo-Pacific.

A light luncheon will be provided.