Law and the International Order
It is tempting to conclude that international law’s influence is receding in a context where power struggles are in the ascendant, especially between dominant nations. But the law still carries weight: as the ultimate constraint on the use of violence, as a shared language for all human communities, and as a framework for action for those who seek to invoke it. It doubtless needs to be rethought and adapted to changes in international relationships, but without losing sight of its day-to-day importance.
In October 1998, against the backdrop of a decade scarred by the Balkan wars, the Rwandan genocide, and emerging conflicts in Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Judge Rosalyn Higgins observed that: “[c]haos appears to be all around us. It is hard not to share the sentiment that the international order today consists of disorder. And yet that disorder is surely not random, but is rather the consequence and result of the overall international system that obtains today. Chaos is an undeniable part of the international system, but certainly is not a satisfactory description ofthe international system”. She concluded that international law is a facilitating discipline, its purpose being “to assist in the achievement of an international stability that is consistent with justice and the realization of shared values”.
Writing more than a quarter of a century later, it is tempting simply to echo her opening words: chaos appears all around us. Today’s conflicts have multiplied from Ukraine to Gaza, from Sudan to Iran. In 2024, there were 61 active State-based conflicts—the highest number since 1946—and the highest level of conflict-related deaths in 30 years. Amid nuclear threats and a “new normal” of high conflict levels, the Doomsday Clock is at 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to catastrophe. In the first three months of 2026 alone, the United States (U.S.) has withdrawn from 66 international organizations; launched a large-scale military operation in Caracas; captured the sitting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and transported him to New York to face trial on narco-terrorism charges; launched a joint military offensive with Israel against Iran; killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in airstrikes on Tehran; and launched joint military operations in Ecuador against designated terrorist organizations. [...]
Article Outline
- What International Law Was Designed to Do
- Three Contemporary Challenges
- Incentive: challenging international law as a stabilizing force
- Legitimacy: challenging international law as a common language
- Enforcement: challenging international law as a framework for resolving disputes
- The Future of International Law
Philippa Webb is a professor of public international law at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, an attorney at Twenty Essex, and a co-founder and director of the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice.
Daisy Peterson is a doctoral student in law at the University of Oxford and a research fellow in international law at the Oxford Institute of Technology and Justice.
Article published in Politique étrangère, Vol. 91, No. 2, 2026.
Available in:
Themes and regions
Share
Download the full analysis
This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.
Law and the International Order
Author(s)
Find out more
Discover all our analyses
The Year He Woke
Vikas Swarup, an Indian writer and former diplomat, is the author of four novels, including Q & A (New York: Doubleday, 2005), which has been translated into 47 languages and adapted for the screen under the title Slumdog Millionaire.
Text published in Politique étrangère, Vol. 91, No. 2, 2026.
War and Technology: An Approaching Military Revolution?
Historically, technological change has altered how battles are fought but has not overturned the fundamental principles of war. However, three considerations may now represent an actual revolution: the recourse to tactical nuclear weapons, the development of software for “multi-domain operations,” and the prospect of general artificial intelligence. The organization of militaries and the use of force need to be rethought in this light.
War and Technology: An Approaching Military Revolution?
Historically, technological change has altered how battles are fought but has not overturned the fundamental principles of war. However, three considerations may now represent an actual revolution: the recourse to tactical nuclear weapons, the development of software for “multi-domain operations,” and the prospect of general artificial intelligence. The organization of militaries and the use of force need to be rethought in this light.
The Crises Testing Arms Control
The arms control system built during and after the Cold War is under enormous stress and is fraying at the edges. It once enabled significant improvements in international security but is in danger of not withstanding the resurgence of tensions in recent years. Urgent action is now needed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, as well as cluster bombs and anti-personnel mines.