The US Has Left the Group Chat: New World Alliances

The end of American unipolarity—and an incipient return to its expansionist roots—has led to new alliances and economic partnerships across the globe. Powerful adversaries like China and Russia are forming their own blocs and pursuing acquisitive agendas; Canada and others are seeking new markets once dominated by the United States for its goods; all while the Trump administration pursues a far more sinewy role in the Middle East and Latin America. Is this a new era of reduced great-power tensions, or the dawn of a new one?

Moderated by Asma Khalid, host of the BBC podcast The Global Story. Featuring former Spokesperson for the United States Department of State and former Ambassador to Liberia Mark Toner; Emma Ashford, Senior Fellow with the Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center; Theodore Wold, Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the first Trump Administration and UChicago Associate Professor of History Samuel Fury Childs Daly. Dinner served.

Co-sponsored by International House.

If you have any questions about accessibility, please contact iopevents@uchicago.edu.

Monday, February 9, 2026

5:30 p.m. CT

International House