After Pax Americana – Pluriverse or Multipolar World Order?

The erosion of the so-called “rules-based international order” or the end of the “Pax Americana”, evident in ongoing conflicts and genocides such as those in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine, and the resurgence of authoritarian and exclusionary political formations, including new forms of technologically mediated governance. In a rapidly transforming global order marked by geopolitical fragmentation, shifting centres of power, and growing contestation over norms and institutions, the notion of a stable Pax Americana appears increasingly untenable. At the same time, this conference calls for collective intellectual and political engagement to create spaces in which alternative ways of knowing, living, and relating can emerge and flourish – beyond the “imperial mode of living”. In the spirit of Audre Lorde, we may recognise that the “master’s house” is fracturing, yet rather than seeking to repair it, we turn towards building new openings that allow us to imagine and enact different, more emancipatory futures.

Event is organized by Josef Mühlbauer & Ksenia Radchenkova (section Global Governance, Uni Graz) in cooperation with the Lebanese American University,  I.F.A.N University in Senegal, Centre for Critical Peace Studies & Comsats University in Pakistan, builds on the earlier “Local Peace Formation” series at the University of Graz and the conference of the Center for Critical Peace Studies (Lahore). It aims to critically engage with the transformation of global order after the decline of Pax Americana. With this unique conference we try to connect scholars from the Global South such as Senegal, Philippines, China, Pakistan, Lebanon and UAE but also scholars form the “Global North” or “the West”, such as Austria & Japan.