The Return of the Great Powers?
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street
In person in Malet Street B18 and online on MS Teams (book on events page for link)
Mark Carney’s ‘Great Powers’ speech at the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos pictured the global landscape as one in which the rules-based international order has broken and the rivalry of the 'Great Powers' has returned as the defining dynamic of world politics. Carney argued that traditional assumptions about the constraints on powerful states no longer hold, and that 'Middle Powers' must act in concert if they are not to be sidelined in an era of economic coercion and unrestrained superpower pursuit of interests.
At the same time, recent geopolitical events — from contentious U.S. actions in Venezuela and threats to Greenland to the ongoing war in Ukraine — raise questions about the scale and limits of great power influence. Does Carney’s diagnosis capture the reality of contemporary geopolitics? Are the so-called Great Powers really unconstrained, or can they still be checked — by middle powers, by internal political limits, or by shifting balances of economic and strategic power?
This roundtable will explore if the return of the Great Powers is the defining feature of the current moment, and what that means for states large and small in an increasingly fragmented international order.
Speakers include:
Professor Deborah Mabbett
Dr Ali Burak Güven
Dr Jason Edwards
Contact name: Jason Edwards
SpeakersTags: