Who Will Emerge As The Next World Powers?

In 2025, China’s Belt and Road Initiative totaled $124 billion across 150 countries, securing more than 175 construction and investment deals. Last year, India, a country on track to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027, contributed nearly 17 percent to global growth. Meanwhile, emergent powers in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East continue to pursue self-interested foreign policies. In an era of deep polarization and unpredictability, how will these countries influence international diplomacy? Should the West be concerned as China, India, and other rising powers form new economic and security partnerships? 

Join us Wednesday, November 12, 2025, at 11:00 am EST // 4:00 pm GMT, for another installment of Free Speech at the Crossroads: International Dialogues. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Free Speech Project (Georgetown University) and the Future of the Humanities Project (Georgetown University and Blackfriars Hall and Campion Hall, Oxford). 

Featured:

David Jones is the former Conservative Member of Parliament for Clwyd West in North Wales. He served under former Prime Minister David Cameron's cabinet as secretary of state for Wales. As minister of state for exiting the European Union, he was intimately involved in British foreign policy during the Brexit period. He was also vice chair of the European Research Group, an influential force within the Conservative Party

Daniel H. Nexon is a professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has authored “The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change,” and “Exit from Hegemony: The Unravelling of American Global Order.”

Howard Robinson, a senior research fellow at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, has taught philosophy at Oriel College, Oxford; Liverpool University; and Eötvös Loránd University. He is professor emeritus at Central European University, where he served as provost from 2007 to 2010. He is also a visiting professor at Rutgers University and a visiting scholar at Fordham University. He has authored and edited numerous books and articles on the history of philosophy, the philosophy of religion, and other subjects.

Chunjuan Nancy Wei, a professor at Wenzhou-Kean University, taught at the University of Bridgeport, where she chaired the East Asian and Pacific Rim Studies program. She has written on the South China Sea disputes, U.S.-China relations, East Asian political economy, and cross-Taiwan Strait politics in the Harvard Asia Quarterly, the Yale Journal of International Affairs, and other publications. Her bilingual manuscript, “The Annotated Sun Tzu’s Art of War,” is being prepared for publication.

Michael Scott (moderator), senior dean and fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, is college adviser for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior adviser to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously was the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University.

Sanford J. Ungar (moderator), president emeritus of Goucher College, is director of the Free Speech Project at Georgetown University, which documents challenges to free expression in American education, government, and civil society. Director of the Voice of America under President Bill Clinton, he was also dean of the American University School of Communication and is a former co-host of "All Things Considered" on NPR.