International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2023

The emergence of a multipolar international order in an age of crises

(Abstract)

Antoine Roth

This essay has made two arguments. First, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have revealed the waning influence of Western states despite the fact that they remain much more powerful than almost any other member of international society. Second, the two crises have accelerated changes in international politics that are giving rise to a multipolar international order. Economically, the drive toward trade liberalization, integration and interdependence that fueled globalization is being partially eclipsed by concerns about economic security and the resilience of the international supply chains that feed the three cores of the global economy, namely the US, Europe and China. In both cases the result is to empower major countries outside of China and the West, who are trying their best to avoid aligning with either side or being drawn exclusively into one or the other’s economic orbit. The international order that is emerging as a result is genuinely multipolar, less stable due to the multiplicity of powerful actors involved and mounting frictions between major countries, but more dynamic.