The "World Social Science Advanced Lecture" (Lecture 70), organized by the Fudan Institute for Advanced Study in Social Sciences (Fudan IAS) was held Oct 25, 2018, at Fudan University. David Held, Professor of Political Science at Durham University and co-founder of the internationally renowned publishing house Polity Press, gave a lecture on Contemporary Challenges to the Global Order: Gridlock and Beyond. Prof. Sujian Guo, Dean and Distinguished Professor of Fudan IAS chaired the event.
Prof.
Guo first warmly welcomed Prof. Held and briefly introduced his research fields
and academic achievements. Prof. Held then started his lecture.
Prof.
Held began by explaining the formation of self-reinforcing interdependence in
the age of globalization. These are as follows: 1. External factors: the
post-war order, the development of science and technology, and the logic of
capitalism are the three most important reasons. 2. Internal factors: the need
for world government. States want to change the anarchic structure of the
international community by establishing international institutions to solve the
problems. The operation of international institutions is not dependent on one
country alone, but requires global cooperation. Thus, this cooperation has, to
a certain extent, contributed to the strengthening of interdependence.
Prof. Held then described seven ways to move beyond the gridlock of
the global order:
1. Transfer of the core interests of great powers
2. Autonomous and adaptive international institutions
3. Technical groups with effective legal processes
4. Convergence of diverse organizations and institutions around
common goals/norms
5. Mobilizing domestic constituencies for cooperation and compliance
6. Coalition with civil society groups in reformist countries
At the
end of his presentation, Prof. Held stated that we need globalized governance,
but there are currently some limitations. For example, many of the existing
international institutions are in deep gridlock and have many internal problems
to solve. Meanwhile, rising nationalism has led to a hardening of previously
lax controls. Although the road ahead is difficult and winding, Prof. Held is
optimistic about the future.
After the speech, Prof. Guo chaired a
Q&A session. Students raised many questions regarding this topic and Prof. Held
answered them in detail. The lecture ended with a round of applause.