296. Autonomy Ascendant

BIC TALKS

The ongoing crises in Ukraine and Gaza highlight the pressing need for a revamped international approach that recognizes the increasing autonomy of middle and smaller powers globally. This necessitates a rejection of attempts to revive a failed unilateral U.S. dominance or force diverse conflicts into an outdated "great power competition" model akin to the Cold War.

In both Ukraine and the Middle East, the United States has faced challenges in imposing its will, both militarily and diplomatically. Smaller nations have successfully resisted American-backed military efforts, and a substantial part of the global community diverges from endorsing U.S. diplomatic perspectives on international norms. Importantly, this opposition does not align with the Cold War paradigm, lacking the support of a superpower peer competitor.

The emerging world order is characterized by "regionalization," where middle and small powers worldwide feel empowered to bypass or defy U.S. interpretations of global norms based on localized interests and regional security considerations.

The roots of this situation trace back to the U.S. pursuit of unilateral power during the War on Terror, diminishing the legitimacy of the post–World War Two international order. This has led the international community to seek alternatives to a system perceived as granting unchecked power to the United States.

The U.S. foreign policy establishment must grapple with this newly deglobalized and regionalized world order, as failure to do so poses a significant threat to U.S. power and influence. Relationships with key emerging powers like India and traditional U.S. allies in Europe and Asia are susceptible to the de–globalizing and regionalizing forces observed in Ukraine and the Middle East.

In this episode of BIC Talks, renowned scholar, Dr. Faisal Devji makes sense of the enduring bewilderment that global history was and continues to be, offering a vantage point that is objective in understanding the enigmatic creature that is globalisation.

This episode is an extract from an in-person session that took place in December 2023 at the BIC premises, as part of Alliance’s Public Lecture Series.

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