Scholars’ Hub @ Home | America at the Edge of History: Expansion, power, and the fragile world order

Join Boyd Cothran, Professor, History, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies on March 4 at 12 p.m. for Scholars’ Hub @ Home! In this talk, Professor Cothran traces how the optimism of the post–Cold War era gave way to a renewed age of American expansion, military intervention, and great-power rivalry. Moving from the 1990s through 9/11, the war on terror, financial crisis, and climate and pandemic shocks, today’s fragile world order reflects long-standing tensions between liberal ideals and the realities of power. The lecture concludes by engaging Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent Davos address, which frames the present moment as a historic rupture and forces a reckoning with what may come after the American-led order.