Notes on the News

Ukraine and the Global Enduring Disorder Edition

Photo by Алесь Усцінаў : Bombed apartment building in Borodyanka

Consider the idea that we’re living through a novel historic era that can’t be properly described or analyzed in terms of conventional theories of international relations. In roughly 2010, we exited the post-Cold War era and entered a new one, which we may call the “Global Enduring Disorder.”

The hallmarks of this new order are twofold: 1) American political dysfunction so extreme that the United States is unable to formulate or sustain any kind of comprehensive effort to maintain global order; 2) the absence of a rival effort to address the crises that have ensued owing to the removal of the hegemon from the international power structure.