Description
Abstract
The 20th century global order – that emerged post-WW-II out of consultation between victor powers and adapted itself to survive into the 21st century – is under duress today. The current debates focus on how to preserve the ‘most valued offerings’ of the order, with great powers most concerned about its future shape or ultimate end. Such concerns result into a ‘prognosis-prescription mix’, while the very problematization of (dis)order suffers a lag. The dominant perspective on (dis)order appears more like a monolithic discourse influenced by dispositional markers of the rule-makers, attributing responsibility to a select few actors. Since an accurate diagnosis is requisite for an apt prescription, a bipartisan view of the factors contributing to our living (dis)order is needed.
This paper aims to delineate on the specific ‘(dis)ordering moments’ that have paved the way to disruptive trends in today’s non-system. It argues that each disordering moment relates to conscious choices, thoughtful complacency or collective inaction of the prime actors– who rationalized the opportunity costs while making trade-offs in their (own) best interests. As time-space transcendence does not allow externalities to be fully reversed in a human world, yet course-correction may help sustaining the order’s most progressive features – the public goods. Acknowledgment of failure(s) in places of irreversible damage, and attributing responsibility instead of blame-shifting, buck-passing and reckless driving is the least to start with – if the rising disorder is to be managed.
