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Commentary
Wall Street Journal

The Rules-Based International Order Is Quietly Disintegrating

It hasn’t been this threatened since the 1930s.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting in Moscow on September 14, 2023. (Mikhail Metzel/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Caption
President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting in Moscow on September 14, 2023. (Mikhail Metzel/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The most important fact in world politics is that 19 months after Vladimir Putin challenged the so-called rules-based international order head-on by invading Ukraine, the defense of that order is not going well. The world is less stable today than in February 2022, the enemies of the order hammer away, the institutional foundations of the order look increasingly shaky, and Western leaders don’t yet seem to grasp the immensity of the task before them.

This isn’t just about the military threats to the international system in such places as Ukraine and the Taiwan Strait. Even as the global geopolitical crisis becomes more acute, the core institutions and initiatives of the American-led world order and the governments that back them are growing progressively weaker and less relevant.

Read the Full Article in the Wall Street Journal.