Can we still imagine a world in which truth, justice, and humanity triumph over lies, hatred, and enmity? Eighty years ago people were confronted with this fundamental question, after the Second World War had left a trail of destruction and disillusionment. Dean Acheson, the 51st Secretary of State of the United States, believed the answer was ‘yes’. As a part of the Truman administration, he set the intention of not only imagining such a world, but of creating it from the ruins the preceding decades had left behind. Acheson was ‘Present at the Creation’, as the title of his memoirs state: present at the creation of a new, liberal world order wherein international organizations like NATO and the UN would guarantee a peaceful future.

Is there anything left of this optimism, and of the Amerian promise to the world? None other than Antony Blinken, until last January the 71st Secretary of State under President Biden, reflected on this question during the Nexus Lecture 2025, ‘Present at the Re-Creation: Restoring the Promise of America in the World’, his first public lecture since Trump took office. Belligerent demagogues and authoritarian leaders threaten to gain control of the world once again, and the question posed eighty years ago is becoming increasingly pressing. What new world does Secetary Blinken imagine rising? And what role can America, which is now itself descending deeper and deeper into chaos, play in this world?