Public panel discussion: Prepare or Repair? The EU in a New Multipolar World Order

The Jean Monnet Summer School on EU Policy Making cordially invites you to its opening panel discussion addressing the EU’s role in a newly emerging multipolar world order. The panel will take place on 29 June 2026 from 15:30 to 16.45.

At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Canadian PM Mark Carney delivered a memorable special address talking about the rupture of the rules-based international world order under US hegemony and called for genuine cooperation among middle powers to resist the intensifying geopolitical competition that characterizes our times. Indeed, amidst the rise of armed conflicts worldwide, trade wars, tech competition and sovereignty claims, global military and defence spending is hitting new records. The EU is no exception to this: while preparing for the possibility of having to defend itself, Europe’s traditionally strong relationship with the US has become uncertain while it keeps up its support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. The EU’s relations with China are also under strain, often becoming visible in the EU’s attempts to build alliances in the Global South. At the same time, the EU has been widely criticized for its stance on the threats to international peace in the Middle East while European publics call for standing up for European values, especially in Gaza or Lebanon. While navigating the nexus of preparing for conflict and repairing relations with others, our panel will explore possible roles for the EU as a plural and global political and economic actor. To dissect this vast discussion, we are pleased to welcome distinguished academic speakers from the field of critical European Studies:

• Jamal Shahin, Brussels School of Governance / University of Amsterdam / UNU-CRIS

• Jan Orbie, Ghent University / UNU-CRIS / Chengdu University of Technology

• Maxine David, Leiden University

Moderators:

• Trisha Meyer, Brussels School of Governance

• Orsolya Gulyás, Brussels School of Governance

The panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A with the audience. If you wish to attend, please register below.

Speakers

Jamal Shahin is the Programme Director of the Advanced Master on European Governance and Chair in Digital Sovereignty at the Brussels School of Governance. He is also a Senior Lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and Professorial Fellow at the United Nations University-CRIS in Bruges. His research interests focus on digital sovereignty, global internet governance, political participation in democratic systems and EU governance. Jamal is keen to explore how new forms of social and political organisation at the global and local levels influence effectiveness and legitimacy of decision making, often linking into debates on sustainability and policy transfer. He is particularly interested in the way in which the EU attempts to communicate its role in both domestic and international venues in different policy fields.

Jan Orbie was a Professor at the Department of Political Science at Ghent University between 2007-2025. He published on critical and normative approaches to EU external relations and taught several courses on EU politics. He is currently affiliated to the Faculties of Law and Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University, to the United Nations University – Comparative Regional Integration Studies, and to the Chengdu University of Technology. He is also an editorial board member of the European Foreign Affairs Review.

Maxine David is a Lecturer in European Politics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. As a foreign policy analyst, she has published extensively on EU-Russia relations, UK foreign policy and US foreign policy. She has co-edited a number of collections on EU-Russia and was one of the coordinators of a Jean Monnet Project: Diversity, Inclusivity and Multidisciplinarity in European Studies (DIMES). Her work has also seen her publish on gender and foreign policy, teaching and learning and the need to disrupt European Studies.

Register here