New world orders: The rise of China in long-term perspective

Professor Ian Morris brings to bear the insights gained from over 30 years of scholarship investigating the development and organisation of human societies and their interactions with each other, their environment, and the resources available to them to explore the forces that drove the rise of the West to global dominance in the 16th-19th centuries and then those that have propelled China more recently.

Professor Morris will also reflect on the resulting changes in the global order in the 21st century and where those might go next.

This lecture forms part of the annual Robert O'Neill War Studies Lecture Series.

Speaker

Ian Morris is Willard Professor of Classics at Standford University. He has published extensively on the history and the archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean and on world history, including Why the West Rules - For Now (2010), War! What is it Good For? (2014), and Foragers, Farmers, and Fossil Fuels: How Human Values Evolve (2015).

He has directed archaeological digs in Greece and Italy, held visiting professorships in anthropology, archaeology, business, international studies, and psychology, and is a contributing editor at Stratfor, a strategic forecasting company.

He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the scientific advisory board of the Max Planck Institute. At Stanford, he has served as Senior Associate Dean of humanities and sciences, Chair of the Classics department, and Director of the Archaeology Centre.

About Robert O'Neill AO

Emeritus Professor Robert O'Neill AO was Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre from 1971 to 1982 and remains an active part of the academic community.

One of the world's leading experts on strategic and security studies, O'Neill previously served as Director, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London (1982-1987); Chichele Professor of the History of War at Oxford University (1987-2000); Chairman of the Council of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (1995-2001); and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Imperial War Museum (1997-2001).