Global Dialogues

Growing up in Greece during the aftershocks of the 2008 economic crisis, I learned early that authority, whether political, financial, or moral, is far more fragile than it appears. I watched respected international institutions like the IMF, whose mission is supposedly grounded in global stability and development, prescribe austerity measures that plunged my country deeper into hardship. It was one of the first times I began to question where moral authority really resides in today’s world and whether it ever rested firmly where we once thought it did.

In my academic work at Georgetown University in Qatar, I’ve continued to wrestle with this question. I’ve studied the effects of U.S. sanctions on Iran and the way economic tools are weaponized under the banner of international diplomacy. I’ve seen how institutions that claim neutrality can often act in the interests of power, not people. This doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned belief in institutions entirely; rather, I’ve come to believe that moral authority today no longer lives solely in the places we used to trust blindly: governments, international organizations, and even global religious leaders.

Instead, it feels like moral authority now exists in pockets—in people and spaces where ethical courage and intellectual honesty still thrive, even without power. I see it in the scholars and activists who push against the grain to call out economic injustice. I see it in the quiet decisions of local leaders who choose to act with dignity in systems that reward the opposite. And yes, I’ve seen it in my own mentors—professors who care not just about ideas, but about how those ideas shape real human lives.

At the same time, I’ve also found a surprising source of moral clarity in spiritual texts like A Sufi Saint of the Twentieth Century and Words of Grace. These works speak of responsibility not in institutional terms, but in deeply personal ones: truthfulness, self-discipline, care for others. They remind me that in a chaotic world, moral authority often begins with inner clarity and the willingness to live according to principles, even when it’s inconvenient.

I don’t think the world today has—or maybe even needs—a single moral authority. We live in a multipolar, multicultural, multi-perspective era. And maybe that’s a strength, not a flaw. The danger lies in thinking we can abdicate our moral role to someone else. In today’s world, moral authority isn’t something we passively receive; it’s something we actively participate in creating.

So when I ask myself where it resides now, I think the answer is: in all of us. In each thoughtful choice. In every refusal to reduce people to numbers or borders. In our shared responsibility to question power, to speak with humility, and to act always with the lives of others in mind.

That’s the kind of authority I hope to both follow and embody as I move forward in academic, institutional, and human spaces alike.

Panos Dalgiannakis (SFS'27) is a sophomore in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Qatar.