World Order Programme

The World Order Programme study group engages with the question of the changing balance of power in world affairs. It is composed of a reading group, regular seminar and a public lecture series. Scholars are asked to test new ideas and have them challenged by their peers.

The study group takes inspiration from previous study groups on world order, such as that formed at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in 1940; or the 1965 conference on the ‘Conditions of World Order’ that took place in Bellagio, Italy, at the height of the Cold War (Participants included Raymond Aron and Henry Kissinger). As with AJI’s world order study group, these looked at fundamental first order questions, such as the structural, ethical and ideological foundations of the current world order, while exploring how they might change in the future; and also brought in leading intellectuals of the day to turn their minds to questions that were of profound importance to foreign policy.