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Global Order in the Shadow of the Coronavirus: China, Russia and the West

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The coronavirus pandemic has thrown a harsh spotlight on the state of global governance. Faced with the greatest emergency since the Second World War, nations have regressed into narrow self-interest. The concept of a rules-based international order has been stripped of meaning, while liberalism faces its greatest crisis in decades.

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Western leaders blame today’s global disorder on an increasingly assertive China and disruptive Russia. Yet the principal threat lies closer to home. Western governments have failed to live up to the values underpinning a liberal international order — a failure compounded by inept policymaking and internal divisions. The actions of Donald Trump, in particular, have undermined transatlantic unity, damaged the moral authority of the West, and weakened global governance.

It is tempting to accept the inevitability of great power confrontation and the demise of international society. But an alternative future is still possible. This lies in a more inclusive order, driven by a common imperative in meeting twenty-first century challenges such as climate change, pandemic disease, and global poverty. These threats transcend national boundaries and strategic rivalries — and so must our responses.

Bobo Lo is an Associate Research Fellow with the Russia/NIS Center at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri).

The whole publication can be found at the Lowy Institute website.

 

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Global Order in the Shadow of the Coronavirus: China, Russia and the West

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Bobo_Lo

Bobo LO

Intitulé du poste

Ancien chercheur associé, Centre Russie/Eurasie de l'Ifri

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 A soldier watching a sunset on an armored infantry fighting vehicle
Security Studies Center
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Heir to a tradition dating back to the founding of Ifri, the Security Studies Center provides public and private decision-makers as well as the general public with the keys to understanding power relations and contemporary modes of conflict as well as those to come. Through its positioning at the juncture of politics and operations, the credibility of its civil-military team and the wide distribution of its publications in French and English, the Center for Security Studies constitutes in the French landscape of think tanks a unique center of research and influence on the national and international defense debate.

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Design, Destroy, Dominate. The Mass Drone Warfare as a Potential Military Revolution

Date de publication
18 June 2025
Accroche

The widespread use of drones observed in Ukraine—both in terms of the scale of the fleets deployed and their omnipresence in the operations of both belligerents—appears to meet the conditions of a genuine military revolution.

Vincent TOURRET
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The Hunt for Economic Security: The Role of Navies in Deterring Threats to the Maritime Economy

Date de publication
10 June 2025
Accroche

The maritime domain is currently faced with a wide variety of threats, such as climate change, economic warfare, shadow fleet operations, protection of critical infrastructures, and illicit activities ranging from illegal fishing to piracy. Navies suffer from inherent limitations when deterring threats to the global maritime economy: their global presence and permanence limits their credibility in terms of deterrence, their focus usually set on immediate deterrence, implementing deterrence by punishment in and from the naval domain is difficult and costly.

Olivier SCHMITT Louise TUMCHEWICS
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A Fragile Consensus? The Pressure on the Norm Against Nuclear Testing

Date de publication
22 April 2025
Accroche

Apart from North Korea, no state has conducted explosive nuclear tests in the 21st century, reflecting the emergence of a strong international norm against such testing.

Doreen HORSCHIG
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The Franco-German Brigade and the Revival of European Defense

Date de publication
08 April 2025
Accroche

One thing has been clear since Donald Trump's return to the White House: the very existence of the European unification project is threatened. Unless it develops a sovereign defense policy to counter the war in Ukraine and the weakening of American security guarantees, the European Union will continue to see its internal cohesion and external attractiveness wane.

Jacob ROSS Nicolas TÉTERCHEN

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Global Order in the Shadow of the Coronavirus: China, Russia and the West