PROGRAMM

The phrase the West trips off the tongue lightly but what does it actually mean? Where is “the West”? When and why did this concept come to be used to refer to a social or political entity based on cultural commonality? Professor of the History of Political Thought GEORGIOS VAROUXAKIS is currently working on a new monograph entitled Occident. History of the Idea of the West. In conversation with IWM Permanent Fellow IVAN VEJVODA, he will consider the history of this concept and what this may tell us about its possible future. Who belongs to the West? Who decides? And what could “the West” still stand for in the future? All these issues and more will be addressed in a brief discussion of a long story.

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GEORGIOS VAROUXAKIS is a professor of the history of political thought at Queen Mary University of London, and co-director of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought. His books include Liberty Abroad: J.S. Mill on International Relations (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Contemporary France: An Introduction to French Politics and Society (co-authored, Routledge, 2003), Victorian Political Thought on France and the French (Palgrave, 2002), and Mill on Nationality (Routledge, 2002). His next monograph, The West: The History of an Idea, will be published by Princeton University Press in 2025.