Jennifer Welsh addresses the crisis of liberal democracy in ‘The Decline of the West’

Blog
6 avril 2018
Auteur(s) :
André Magnan, Congress 2018 Convenor, University of Regina

This is a Congress 2018 blog about event #1235. Click here to find out more about it.

In recent weeks, the governments of the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and other Western countries have expelled dozens of Russian diplomats from their capital cities. This diplomatic rebuke has come in response to the poisoning of a former Russian double agent on British soil, a crime the U.K. blames on the Russian state. Add to this the on-going fallout from Russian interference into the 2016 American election, and it seems that relations between Russia and the West have hit their lowest point since the end of the Cold War.

Do these events suggest the dawn of the Cold War 2.0, or an even more complex and multi-sided era of geopolitical rivalry? What are the prospects for liberal democracy in such a world? What can be done to protect and revive the democratic project both within the West and around the world? Renowned scholar of international relations, Oxford University Professor, and Regina native Jennifer Welsh will address these and other questions during her keynote address The Decline of the West, at Congress 2018.

Professor Welsh delivered the 2016 CBC Massey Lectures, which were subsequently published as The Return of History, a book that examines crises such as regional wars, the plight of refugees, and rising social inequality, all of which threaten the stability of the international order. Her analysis is a sober reminder that democratic values and institutions cannot be taken for granted; rather, they must be defended and renewed by each subsequent generation.

The University of Regina is honoured that Professor Welsh will be delivering this talk at Congress 2018, on May 30 at 16:00-17:30. The event is sponsored by the Faculty of Arts, and is free and open to the public. For more details, please click here.