The seventh ACRPS International Winter School, organized by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, concluded on Thursday, 16 January 2026. The program, which began on 10 January, was held under the title “The “Post-Liberal Moment”: A Paradigm Shift or a Passing Trend?”. This edition brought together 20 researchers, who presented their research projects, which examined various dimensions of liberalism. These presentations were discussed by academics and experts from the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies and researchers from the Arab Center, alongside several specialized scholars and academics in the field. The program also featured a series of public lectures and two roundtables delivered by leading experts on the topic, which were broadcast through the Arab Center’s social media platforms. This format provided participants with opportunities to acquire and exchange knowledge and to further develop their research projects.

Day six of the Winter School began with a lecture and a roundtable. The lecture, titled “The Crisis of Liberal Globalism: Illiberal Convergences in the Political Economy of Trump, Orbán, and Saied”, was delivered by Gábor Scheiring, Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics at Georgetown University Qatar. His lecture centred on the empirical and political-strategical side of liberalism. He argued that liberalism is in crisis, as the number of democracies declines and autocratization rises, driven in part by the growth of the far right in Europe, Latin America, Turkey, and other regions, reshaping democracy in more authoritarian directions.

To examine democratic backsliding, Scheiring focused on what he termed the “bad guys” as influential political actors: Viktor Orbán, Kais Saied, and Donald Trump. He posed the question: Why is authoritarian populism, or illiberalism, on the rise? To address this, Scheiring conducted a three-way comparative analysis of these culturally and politically dissimilar cases, arguing that despite their differences, they produce similar political outcomes. The common thread, he suggested, is international integration producing domestic disintegration, coupled with the failure of progressive democratic politics to respond effectively, thereby opening the way for illiberalism.

Theoretically, Scheiring discussed cultural backlash as a frequently cited explanation in the literature. He argued, however, that this framework treats culture as fixed values or identities rather than as lived experience shaped by material conditions. As a result, it misreads culture as a cause rather than a medium through which economic and political dislocation is articulated. Empirically, this approach fails because illiberalism is not confined to older, white, or declining social groups. Politically, it leads to moralizing diagnoses that offer no viable strategy for democratic renewal. Scheiring also critiqued what he called “bad-apple approaches”, which conflate visible political actors with underlying structural causes and reduce democratic breakdown to the actions of immoral leaders. Economic explanations, he noted, often reduce analysis to GDP, income levels, or short-term crises, overlooking lived insecurity and decline and ignoring how economic dislocation is mediated by culture, institutions, and experience.

Scheiring proposed an alternative framework grounded in relational materialism, arguing that economy, culture, and politics are not separate spheres but co-evolve through lived social relations shaped by global capitalism. Rejecting both economic determinism and cultural essentialism, he advanced a “triple evaluation” approach: global capitalist restructuring generates intertwined losses of economic security, cultural value, and political voice. Within this framework, agency matters, while structures shape opportunities rather than predetermined outcomes. Democracy, he concluded, is not merely a set of values but a class compromise.

In his conclusion, Scheiring highlighted three key takeaways: first, illiberalism is neither a cultural accident nor a leadership anomaly; second, structures open the door, but political strategy determines outcomes; and third, democratic renewal requires the social and material re-embedding of democracy.

The roundtable opened the floor to five speakers to discuss the prospect of a “post-liberal” international governance order: Amanda Garrett, Assistant Professor of Comparative and International Politics at Georgetown University in Qatar; Harith Hasan, Associate Researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies; Lynda Chinenye Iroulo, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University in Qatar; Marlene Laruelle, Professor in the Department of Political Sciences at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome; and Adham Saouli, Professor of Politics and International Relations and Head of the Critical Security Studies Program at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies.

The discussion focused on the liberal international system of governance – comprising institutions, rules, and norms designed to organize and manage global political, military, and economic affairs – and the significant challenges it currently faces. Speakers examined whether existing liberal international order institutions and their associated rules and norms are resilient enough to endure unprecedented pressures or whether they are gradually eroding, giving way to new forms of global governance and an alternative international order. They also explored the emergence of new institutions, the rules and norms taking shape within them, and the principal actors driving their formulation and diffusion, whether major powers, Global South coalitions, or non-state actors. A central theme concerned the legitimacy and effectiveness of these emerging frameworks and whether the international system is moving toward a hybrid order in which old and new institutions coexist, or toward deeper fragmentation and norm contestation that could accelerate a return to power-based politics.

The seventh International Winter School concluded by reaffirming its role as a critical space for sustained scholarly exchange, offering participants a rigorous and interdisciplinary environment to engage with pressing theoretical and empirical debates shaping contemporary global politics.