On Wednesday, April 20th, Discourse and Democracy hosted a panel lecture titled “Ukraine, Russia, and the Future of International Order.” The discussion was moderated by the Department’s Dr. Ionut Popescu and featured Drs. Ed Mihalkanin, Alex Kroeger, and Tom Doyle of the Political Science Department, as well as Dr. Mark Pomar of the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas.
The panel focused on the significance of the war in Ukraine and its implications for the future of the liberal international order. The panelists approached this question from a variety of perspectives. Dr. Doyle explored it from the perspective of International Relations theory, examining how a multi-power world order might come about and how it might differ from previous periods of competition on the international stage. Dr. Kroeger used his expertise in authoritarian government to explain Putin’s popularity throughout the world and guess at Putin’s motivations and plans. Dr. Mihalkanin and Dr. Pomar used their knowledge of the regional history and contemporary politics of Eastern Europe to reach differing conclusions about the driving geopolitical factors of the conflict and its implications for the future.
All in all, the event lived up to the title of a “Discourse and Democracy” event, featuring a vigorous exchange of views and lots of discussion with the audience. As one student remarked, the event was “lively,” with a “diversity of opinions” that gave attendees a “behind the scenes peek” at the scholarly debates in contemporary IR theory.
