- In the chaos of the United States and the world it leads, how should we build a new international order? *
The stable and open international order established under America is disintegrating. Democracy is in retreat from authoritarianism, globalized markets are crumbling, and the era of lasting peace that was expected with the end of the Cold War has given way to great-power competition.This rift in the international system comes at a time when many of our greatest challenges, such as climate change, the threat of pandemics, and rapidly changing technologies, require collective action.
Charles A. Kupchan diagnoses the sources of global chaos and offers a guide to building a new order that suits the emerging multipolar world. Building on the “European consensus” system, which maintained peace among the great powers after the Napoleonic Wars, Kupchan proposes a global system of consensus - high-level steering groupsGo beyond ideological divisions - to anchor a polycentric regional world.
The task of building order must begin with the revival of American democracy and the nation's enduring leadership abroad. Only when democracies overtake illiberal and authoritarian alternatives will they be able to lead the world through the next transition and, ultimately, reorient the course of history toward freedom, Kupchan says.
