We are living in the age of bullies
Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, not to mention others, are 2025 poster-boys of running roughshod. To be fair, strongman-ism is in fashion.
It's what — to put it in market research terms — what the 'public demands'.
Thanks to Vlad Putin, we are now witness to a breach of post-WW2 norms. As Yuval Noah Harari observes, 'Russia's invasion of Ukraine breaks the biggest taboo of the international order… Since 1945, no internationally recognised state was wiped off the map by external conquest.
Russia is trying to do just that to Ukraine.' The recent jest in Trump's threat of taking over the Panama Canal and annexing Canada isn't that obviously funny any more. The quadrumvirate — of Putin, Trump, Xi Jinping and Benjamin Netanyahu — are the new ambassadors of the Hobsbawmian 'Age of Bullies' as we slip into 2025.
The rest of the world — particularly advanced developing countries big enough to count but not big enough to sway — must push their weight across the spectrum of Big Powers to prevent the complete takeover of the multilateral order by mercantilist powers led by playground bullies.
Multilateral order needs reform, not jettisoning. It is the system that allowed for unprecedented economic growth that comes with political stability.
Reforming and rebuilding the multilateral world order will yield rich dividends in the medium and long run. It would be a pity if citizens run after muscular leadership at the cost of genuine progress.
