Public event

Challenges in international security: Why Biden can’t restore US global hegemony

Join us for a presentation by Daniel Nexon and Alexander Cooley based on their recent book Exit from Hegemony: The Unravelling of American Global Order.

In Exit from Hegemony, Cooley and Nexon explore three processes that have eroded US leadership: exit from above via great-power challengers, exit from below via weaker states leveraging the availability of new patrons, and exit from within via counter-order movements and political parties. They argue that Trump has been both a symptom and accelerant of these processes, and discuss what a new Biden administration can and can’t do to alter the trajectory of change in international order.

This event is part of the speaker series "Challenges in international security" hosted by the Centre for International Security.

Guest speakers

Daniel Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work covers topics in international-relations theory, American foreign policy, power politics, the politics of religious contention, and the relationship between popular culture and world politics. His recent book, Exit from Hegemony: The Unravelling of American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020), co-authored with Alex Cooley, explores the contentious politics of international order. Nexon has held fellowships at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University’s Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010, he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. From 2014-2018, I was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly.

Alexander Cooley is the Claire Tow Professor of Political Science at Barnard College and Director of Columbia University's Harriman Institute (2016-present) for the study of Russia, Eurasia and Eastern Europe. His research examines how external actors—including emerging powers, international organizations, multinational companies, NGOs, and Western enablers of grand corruption—have influenced the development, governance and sovereignty of the former Soviet states, with a focus on Central Asia and the Caucasus. Cooley is the author and/or editor of seven academic books including, Exit from Hegemony: the Unravelling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020), co-authored with Daniel Nexon. In addition to his academic research, Professor Cooley serves on several international advisory boards. His opinion pieces have appeared in New York Times, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs.

Chair

Marina Henke is Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School. She researches and publishes on military interventions, peacekeeping, and European security and defense policy. Before joining the Hertie School, she was an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University, specialising in international relations and at Princeton University where she was a Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Henke holds a PhD in Politics and Public Policy from Princeton University, a Double-MS in Development Studies and International Political Economy from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics, and a BA in Economics, Politics and Latin American Studies from Sciences Po Paris.

About the "Challenges in international security" speaker series

The series invites senior scholars, decision-makers and policy experts to discuss critical global security challenges and their potential solutions.

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