West’s Failure to Reform Threatens World Order

A rebalancing of world power is underway, and global and regional organizations are in need of reform. China and Russia challenge the post–World War II international order developed by the United States and its allies. China’s swift economic growth and Russia’s military interventions have caught the West off guard, explains journalist and author Humphrey Hawksley: “China… is stepping into an array of vacuums created by economic crises, weak governance and unpredictable populism, yet nether Beijing nor Moscow has the wherewithal to build rival institutions of the strength that has allowed the West to hold sway in the world order for centuries.” International organizations designed to promote cooperation have not kept pace with social and economic changes since 1945. Groups like the United Nations, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund must take voices of rising powers into account or risk losing credibility and influence. Hawksley concludes, “The West’s failure to act on modernizing the world order is becoming as much a threat to the West’s rules-based system as is Russia and China’s attempt to challenge it.” – YaleGlobal