From the US-Led Rules-Based Order to Multipolar International Law

By Dan Steinbock

Recently, Canada’s PM Mark Carney declared the end of the rules-based order. It was an outstanding speech. Yet, US unilateralism first soared in the 1980s. The rest of the West complied as long it was beneficial. Today, it no longer is.

Recently, Prime Minister Mark Carney, perhaps the ultimate liberal insider, gave a seminal speech at Davos, declaring the demise of the rules-based international order and ushering in a new period of might-based diplomacy.

In the recent Munich Security Conference, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz seconded Carney by stating that the “rules-based order, however imperfect it was even at its best, no longer exists.”

But there are cracks in this (new) mainstream narrative. The US-led rules-based order did not end in Davos. It has been fiction since the 1980s.