The 10th annual Breyer Lecture: Matias Spektor on the US, the West, and international law in an age of strategic competition

Friday, April 5, 2024, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. 
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW. Washington, D.C.

Can Western countries uphold the rules-based international order, established during a time of U.S. hegemony, in a more contested era? Is the current international legal framework adequate to govern engagement and confrontation between nations? How can multilateral institutions help preserve international law and ensure accountability in instances of its violation? What aspects of the order need to change, and how? On April 5, 2024, Foreign Policy at Brookings will host Professor Matias Spektor for the 10th annual Justice Stephen Breyer Lecture on International Law. Spektor will address the issue of the United States, the West, and international law in an age of strategic competition against the backdrop of Russia’s continued war of aggression against Ukraine, conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, continued geopolitical shifts, and a year of pivotal elections around the world, including in the U.S. and Europe.

Spektor is a Brazilian foreign policy expert and founder and professor at the School of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo. He specializes in international security, political violence, transnational repression, climate politics, and the history and theory of international order, with a focus on Brazil, Latin America, and the Global South.  

After the keynote address, Constanze Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, will join Spektor for a conversation on how Western institutions have responded to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and how the Global South can help establish a more robust international order based on the rule of law, transparency, and accountability. A panel discussion with distinguished experts on these issues will follow.

Registration is required to attend an event in person and guests at Brookings are required to attest to their state of health before attending. Visitors may not enter the building if they are feeling ill for any reason, have any symptoms commonly associated with COVID-19, or have tested positive for COVID-19 at any time in the preceding 5 days or longer in accordance with current CDC guidance, or have been advised by their healthcare professional or otherwise to not enter any space where some persons may not be vaccinated.
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