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cover of episode Revolutions and world order: still the 'Sixth Great Power'?

Revolutions and world order: still the 'Sixth Great Power'?

2025/5/27
logo of podcast LSE: Public lectures and events

LSE: Public lectures and events
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This chapter pays tribute to Professor Fred Halliday, highlighting his significant contributions to the fields of international relations, Middle East studies, and left-wing politics. His career is explored, emphasizing his roles as an academic, mentor, and public intellectual.
  • Fred Halliday's influential career spanned radical journalism, the Transnational Institute, the New Left Review, and the LSE.
  • His work covered diverse areas including Arabia, Iran, the Cold War, and the Middle East.
  • Halliday was known for his critical thinking, challenging established narratives and engaging in public debate.

Shownotes Transcript

Contributor(s): Professor George Lawson, Dr Jasmine K Gani | This lecture, held in honour of the renowned scholar Fred Halliday, will explore the relationship between revolutions and world order in contemporary geopolitics. Fred Halliday argued that revolutions were the “sixth great power” of the modern world, a force that sat alongside the five great powers that sought to regulate 19th century world politics. Does Halliday’s assessment of the impact of revolutions remain true today? This talk analyses the three main forms that revolution takes today – ‘people power’ movements, ‘restoration revolutions’ and ‘decentralised vanguardism’ – and assesses their impact on contemporary world order. It argues that revolutions remain central to contemporary world politics, not as a “sixth great power”, but still as the primary means through which people around the world mobilise against injustice, inequality and domination.