Yuri Kobzar23:58, 09.05.25

The old world is being destroyed not only by Russia, China, and the new US administration, but also by a number of smaller players.

As humanity marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II , each day brings new evidence that the international order established eight decades ago is rapidly collapsing. Ahead of us lies “a prolonged and dangerous period of global disorder,” writes Timothy Garton-Ash, a British historian and expert on the politics and modern history of Central and Eastern Europe, in the Financial Times .

He notes that while humanity never had a golden age, after 1945 much of Europe, Asia and Oceania lived in security and prosperity under the protection of the United States. But now that order is in decline, partly because of the rise of the rest of the world through globalization, and partly because of “America’s own arrogant self-destruction.”

“President Donald Trump is now destroying what remains of this structure with unparalleled speed and recklessness,” Garton-Ash writes.

The historian calls the three major wars currently underway (in Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan), a potentially fourth war between nuclear powers India and Pakistan, and Trump’s trade tariffs, which only add to the chaos, signs of the collapse of the old order.

The analyst also names specific countries that are directly interested in the destruction of the old world order. It is not only Russia and China, about which everything is already clear. Many still do not notice the growing aggressiveness of India under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A number of medium-sized countries, such as Turkey, Brazil and South Africa, also see their interest in the new redivision of the world. 

For 80 years since the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the taboo on the use of such weapons in war has remained. But Russian aggression against Ukraine could break this dam, triggering a new arms race in the world. Garton-Ash emphasizes that we are dealing with a situation where a nuclear power attacked its neighbor, which at one time renounced nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the same nuclear power. 

Adding to this tangle of problems is artificial intelligence technology, which creates the danger of a new arms race and opens up a new dimension of geopolitical struggle – in the information realm. 

“Nothing in history is inevitable. However… we should actively prepare for a prolonged period of global disorder,” the analyst summarizes.

New World Order

As UNIAN reported, a number of observers consider the Moscow parade on May 9 to be a bad landmark event that finally marked the world’s transition to a new historical era, where the old rules-based world order has been challenged. Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow is a signal to the West that an alliance of autocracies has already been formed .

Watching the parade itself, a British journalist saw a new essence of modern Russia. In a report for his publication, he noted that today Moscow was celebrating war instead of rejoicing in peace .

(c)UNIAN 2025