'New world order' brings politics out of textbooks for these university students

Keeping up with the rapidly evolving dynamics of geopolitics can feel exhausting these days.

There was U.S. President Donald Trump wanting control of Greenland, threatening tariffs against his allies, and Prime Minister Mark Carney's provocative speech about a shakeup of the global order at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, all of which has happened this week.

But for some university students majoring in politics, the constant twists and turns have made textbook lessons come to life and forced them to apply theories to the changing world they live in.

"It's super overwhelming! I'm a little tired of waking up to unprecedented things," Finlay McFarlane, a third-year international relations student at Western University in London. Ont., said.

"As a young person and someone who's going to have to live in that 'New world order', this is frightening," he added referencing Carney's speech.

If you ask me what kind of conversations I expect to have by the end of the semester, I wouldn't be able to predict it.- Blair Welsh, assistant professor of political science at Western University.

At the same time, the current political situation is shaping course work and how students engage academically, McFarlane said. He points to a history of genocide course he's taking where a hypothetical U.S. annexation of Greenland was among first topic of discussion.

It's something McFarlane, a dual American and Canadian citizen, couldn't imagine as a real possibility a few years ago. His peer Maria Maia agrees, adding that watching the world order change so quickly has been concerning.

"This brings more uncertainty, whether positive or negative," Maia said, who's in her third year of a political science degree. "It changes things and we can't predict them. And that makes it scary."

Maia believes this change in structure was inevitable and had built up over the years, she said.

"I think it's important as students of this discipline to know that we have to adapt to these issues. This isn't something brand new, international law and relations are so trust-based," she said, adding that it's difficult to see how the structure of the world can be changed by someone like Trump, who holds a hegemonic power.

Uptick in students taking political courses, says prof

Educators are also actively trying to wrap their heads around the changing landscape when it comes to teaching courses about international relations, Blair Welsh, an assistant professor of political science at Western, explained.

Students are bringing up concerns and conversations about Canada safety and hypothetical scenarios about its participation in wars, Welsh said. Last semester, many students spoke about travelling to or buying products from the U.S.

"It's definitely bringing up more questions than answers and we're now engaging in much more in-depth discussions for things that are changing on a day-to-day, week-by week basis," he said.

"You design a syllabus in advance and you think that we will run through these topics very naturally. But because of the way international relations are being reshaped, if you ask me what kind of conversations I expect to have by the end of the semester, I wouldn't be able to predict it."

Welsh has found a growing number of students from other departments are taking political science courses to learn more about it and the role they play in geopolitics.

Maia and McFarlane have also noticed more students becoming politically engaged. They believe it's a result of heightened awareness due to multiple global conflicts that are impacting communities in Canada, along with an influx of information online.

Many students walking by demonstrations happening on campus are asking questions and having discussions even if they're often polarized, said McFarlane.

"A lot of people would typically just ignore politics, but with the gravity of things and mass atrocities happening across the world, it's so in your face that you can't ignore it," he said.