2025 Grawemeyer world order award goes to John M. Owen IV for ‘The Ecology of Nations’

For researching and writing “The Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order,” an innovative book about the way the international ecosystem constrains and influences democracies, University of Virginia politics professor John M. Owen IV will receive the 2025 Grawemeyer Award for World Order. 

Reminiscent of an earlier era of political science, the wide-ranging work grapples with intellectual ideas that will have direct impact on the worlds of politics, policy, and government — such as the likely future of international order, with an emphasis on the competition between democracies and autocracies. Historically rich and sophisticated, its breadth spans international relations, political theory, and comparative politics.

“Political scientists have tended to analyze democratic longevity and crises in domestic terms,” said University of Louisville professor of political science and University Scholar Charles E. Ziegler, director of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. “They generally look at internal economic structure, income levels, and a society’s cultural traits. Owen’s exposition of the role of the international ecosystem marks a major contribution to our understanding of world order.”

The Grawemeyer Award for World Order has been given annually since 1988. Professor Owen appreciates the influence of a number of past Grawemeyer Award winners, particularly 1989 winner Robert Keohane, whose “After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy” inspired Owen, then a Keohane advisee, to investigate the way international institutions work. In addition, 1992 winner Samuel Huntington, one of Owen’s graduate-school mentors, prompted Owen to attend to the waxing and waning global fortunes of democracy, as well as to international contagion. The work of Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, winners in 2000 for “Activists beyond Borders,” showed Owen how transnational groups carry ideas and practices across national boundaries.

Owen will accept his award at a ceremony in Louisville on April 10.

About the Grawemeyer Awards

Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, education, religion, psychology, and world order. Business executive and family man H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville in collaboration with Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is relevant to society at large. The University of Louisville announces the winners in December and presents the awards at a ceremony the following April. Each award winner receives $100,000, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at grawemeyer.org.