Author: Charlie Campbell
Affiliations: East Asia Correspondent for Time
Organization/Publisher: Time
Date/Place: February 24, 2022/ USA
Type of Literature: Analysis
Word Count: 1520
Link: https://time.com/6150874/world-order-russia-ukraine/
Keywords: Russia, Ukraine, China, U.N., World Oder
Brief
The invasion of Ukraine by one of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Russia, signifies the ultimate repudiation of the world based on rules that the organization envisions. The bombardment of multiple Ukrainian cities by Russian forces despite the testy condemnation of the act by the U.N. General Assembly has shown the impotence of members to affirm peace and dialogue. However, explaining and associating this failure to Putin is to reduce the issue and overlook the global realities that include NATO’s aggressive expansion and Russia’s need for strategic defense. The institutions of global governance have been fragile for a long time, exposed by a wave of recent crises that have gained flimsy attention: “the annexation of Crimea, the COVID-19 pandemic, the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, popular uprising in Kazakhstan, coup d’état in Myanmar, and now, most drastic of all, invasion of Ukraine”. It requires updating the world order and resolving these crises, though how that can happen is a big question to address. The problem is that the international community never really increased efforts to build international or multilateral organizations to play their role genuinely and effectively when a world order was relatively good and new. In the aftermath of the Cold War, the West believed that the world was changed forever—with liberalism as the yardstick achievement of humanity. However, within a few decades, liberal democracies have lost their elegances with the upsurge of successful economies of nondemocratic countries. Today, China’s economic and military rise and its compassion for Russia in the latter’s ongoing war in Ukraine have returned the old fissures with potential flashpoints everywhere. At this juncture, the solution and hope for the established world order are to embolden, rather than rip up, the existing international institutions and to not leave the warring parties to address the crisis by themselves. Moreover, states must be required to conduct their affairs through a written public process on every occasion, and that veto power be exercised to make them subject to the international community’s scrutiny. For that purpose, “the U.N. General Assembly should be more empowered to act when the Security Council doesn’t.”
By: Jemal Muhamed, CIGA Research Associate
