Agreement between the UN Security Council’s five permanent members is key to a truly new world, a fairer world, a more secure world, a multipolar world and every other, better world
International relations, i.e. “the world”, is erroneously viewed as a static quantity or unchanging value, while in reality “the world” is in constant turmoil. In international relations, processes aren’t static, they unfold in front of us and somewhere in their depths carry the sprouting shoots of a “new” world. Following the final victory over Napoleon, Europe’s empires forged an alliance that they hoped to use to preserve their positions and ensure they remained untouchable and unchangeable. This alliance, established by Russian Tsar Alexander I, was supposed to suppress any change (revolution) and safeguard its own geopolitical monopoly.
The only things that remain unchanged in “the world” since 1945 is the UN Security Council and the U.S. dollar (no alternative is more universal). The monopoly of the five permanent members of the Security Council (U.S., USSR / Russian Federation, China, UK and France) has lasted for 80 years, incomparably longer than the aforementioned imperial alliance. This has happened despite many attempts to reform the UN by adapting the composition and decision- making processes of the “world government” to the “new” worlds that have been paraded since its foundation. Agreement between the big five is key to a truly new world, a fairer world, a more secure world, a multipolar world and every other, better world.
Following the 2024 election and Donald Trump’s return to the White House, we are awaited by years during which the U.S., as the key country, but also smaller countries, will have an opportunity to shape the “new” world
Several “new worlds” have come and gone since World War II. The cannon barrels hadn’t yet cooled when the Cold War and the arms race broke out. The world was sliding towards nuclear apocalypse. An exit was found in negotiations between the superpowers on arms limitation, and later on disarmament; this led to the birth of another “new” world, to détente and cooperation between the two worlds, opposing blocs. An epochal shift in international relations came with the collapse of the Soviet socialist system, marking the end of the bipolar world. The world came to be ruled by one power, one system. This ushered in the era of the unipolar world of the U.S. (Fukuyama’s end of history), but there is no end. There is only forward movement, towards a more or less predictable future. No one has yet managed to turn back the wheel of history.
Following the U.S. presidential election (2024) and Donald Trump’s return to the White House, we are awaited by years during which it will be decided how the “new” world will look. The responsibility doesn’t lie only with the U.S., though it will be crucial in shaping that world, as the key country. Small countries also have a right to shape this “new” world. Trump is a specific representative of the far right, of big capital, as a unifying, unpredictable and eccentric character of “easily promised speed”. Nobody is satisfied with today’s existing relations and everyone is seeking the transformation of international relations towards a safer and more just world for all.
