It used to be as America goes, so goes the world, but it looks like the times they are a changing.
It’s that new reality that is the driving force behind UBC’s 2026 Lind Initiative speaker series’ theme of America First, America Alone? Global Politics in an Age of Uncertainty.
The 2026 theme sets out to look at U.S. foreign policy under President Trump and to ask what happens when the world’s leading superpower exits the geopolitical game it helped create and who will step up now that the Americans are shifting their foreign policy to an ‘America First’ approach.
“Canada has long benefited from an American-led world order. Our security, prosperity, and diplomacy were all built on the assumption that the U.S. would lead — and lead in predictable, multilateral ways. That assumption no longer holds,” said Gregor Sharp, the academic director of the Lind Initiative. “That’s why this year’s Lind Initiative is focused on understanding the implications of an ‘America First’ foreign policy. We want to unpack what this actually looks like in practice, what it means for Canada, and how we navigate a world that’s suddenly much less certain.”
The speakers lined up to offer a lens into a what a post-American led world may look like are: Thomas L. Friedman, the three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and bestselling author (Jan. 22); Charity Weeden, a former NASA associate administrator for technology, policy, and strategy and a 23-year Royal Canadian Air Force veteran (Feb. 5); Hasan Piker, journalist and popular content creator on the streaming platform Twitch (Feb. 12); Dread Scott, interdisciplinary artist and activist (Feb. 25); Rachel Maddow, host of MS NOW’s The Rachel Maddow Show and author (March 5); and Carlos Lozada, a Pulitzer Prize-winning opinion columnist for The New York Times (March 26).
Tickets for the series, presented by the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs in partnership with the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, The Polygon Gallery, and the Outer Space Institute, are free while quantities last (maximum two per order), and registration is required. Go to the Chan Centre website or lindinitiative.ca for tickets.
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