Event — Lecture

Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation is Failing When We Need It Most?

In this lecture Professor David Held explores the changing nature and form of multilateral and transnational governance in an era marked by the rise of Asia, among other regions.

Together with the Leiden University Centre for Political Philosophy, IIAS organises a lecture by Prof. David Held

In this lecture Professor Held explores the changing nature and form of multilateral and transnational governance in an era marked by the rise of Asia, among other regions. He examines why it is that the Post-World-War-II era was so successful, and why what worked then does not work any longer.


David Held is Master of University College, Durham and Professor of Politics and International Relations. Prior to Durham, he was Graham Wallas Chair of Political Science and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics. He has also held numerous visiting appointments in various countries including the U. S., Australia, Canada, Spain and Italy.

Professor Held is a widely studied, widely quoted thinker on globalization, changing forms of democracy and prospects of regional and global governance. Among his recent publications are Gridlock: Why Global Cooperation is Failing when We Need it Most (2013), Cosmopolitanism: Ideals and Realities (2010), Globalisation/Anti-Globalisation (2007), Models of Democracy (2006), Global Covenant (2004), Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture (1999), and Democracy and the Global Order: From the Modern State to Cosmopolitan Governance (1995). He is a Director of Polity Press which he co-founded in 1984, and General Editor of Global Policy which is devoted to bringing together academics and practitioners on issues of global governance.

Among Professor Held's numerous honours was his election as Honorary President of the global governance think-tank Civitatis International in 2011.