The Brian Mulroney Institute, Development Studies, and Coady Institute Present
The New Global (Dis)Order: The Crisis of Liberal Internationalism and Its Consequences
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Mulroney Hall 4030
Panelists: Yogesh Ghore (Coady Institute), Jonathan Langdon (Development Studies/Adult Education), Asa McKercher (PGOV), Hailey Murphy (Political Science), Lavinia Stan (Political Science)
Moderator: Nancy Forestell (Women’s and Gender Studies/Development Studies)
The panel will address the crisis of liberal internationalism (LI) that is now underway on multiple fronts. Led primarily by liberal democracies to promote peace and prosperity, LI constitutes the longstanding commitment to transnational cooperation (e.g., development aid) and international institutions. LI has not been without major deficiencies, among them its inability to dismantle economic, military, and political inequities, and especially between the Global North and South. Yet, we are now in an era where an increasing number of countries, such as the United States, but not only the US, are actively abandoning IL principles and practices.
All are welcome.
BIOGRAPHIES
Yogesh Ghore
Senior Program Staff, Coady Institute
Yogesh Ghore leads the Coady Institute’s Inclusive Economies thematic area, drawing on over 23 years of global experience in community and international development. As a dedicated practitioner and educator, he provides leadership for a wide range of educational programs, research, and capacity-building initiatives. His work spans Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Americas, with a current focus on social enterprise, the informal economy, the future of work, and building a just transition toward a green and inclusive economy.
Dr. Jonathan Langdon
Canada Research Chair for Sustainability and Social Change Leadership; Development Studies Program
Jonathan Langdon is a Professor and the Canada Research Chair for Sustainability and Social Change Leadership at St Francis Xavier University. For the past 20 years, he has been working with social movements in Ghana to document and deepen their learning in, through and to struggle. More recently, this work sparked a partnership network amongst social movements in Ghana, South Africa, Guatemala and Canada that focuses on how movements can learn from each other from one locale to another, or translocally. In addition to this new partnership, Langdon has contributed to critical and decolonized approaches to Development Studies curriculum, including experiential learning pedagogy. Langdon’s collaborative research has been recognized internationally, receiving two David Jones awards for international research from the UK’s adult education research association, SCUTREA. Co-authored with many of the activists he’s worked with, as well as with students, Langdon’s writing has been published in leading international and Canadian development, participatory action research and adult education journals. He is the author of African Social Movement Learning (Brill, 2020), and editor of Indigenous Knowledges, Development and Education (Sense, 2009).
Dr. Asa McKercher
Steven K. Hudson Chair in Canada-US Relations, Mulroney Institute; Public Policy and Governance
Asa McKercher is Steven K. Hudson Chair in Canada-US Relations at the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government at StFX. A specialist on American politics and on the Canadian-American relationship, his latest books include Building a Special Relationship: Canada-US Relations in the Eisenhower Era, 1953-1961 (2024) and North of America: Canadians and the American Century (2023).
Dr. Hailey Murphy
Political Science
Hailey Murphy holds a PhD from York University and is a professor in the Department of Political Science at StFX. Specializing in Canadian politics and the politics of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, her research focuses on lesbian political autonomy, intersectionality, and queer rights, particularly political invisibility and the need for recognition. A proud member of the 2SLGBTQ+ community, she connects the needs of her community with her academic work.
Dr. Lavinia Stan
Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Chair in Democracy and Governance, Mulroney Institute; Political Science
Dr. Lavinia Stan is the inaugural Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Chair in Democracy and Governance, a Mulroney Institute Fellow, and Professor of Political Science at StFX. She is a comparative politics specialist widely recognized as an expert on Romania and the post-communist world. Her recent work has focused on the way in which religious groups have reckoned (or not) with their communist past and with their involvement with those repressive regimes. She is the author or editor of some 15 books and numerous articles and book chapters, including Post-Communist Progress and Stagnation at 35: The Case of Romania (with Diane Vancea, 2024) and the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice (with Nadya Nedelsky, 2023).
Photo: David Watkis