Alexander Stubb writes in FA the post-1945 order is collapsing. The world is shifting from rules to hard multipolar power.
Three blocs — West, East, South — now drive geopolitics. Middle powers like Brazil, India, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey decide outcomes.
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He warns the West has 5–10 years to prove it can act without double standards, share real power and treat the global South as an equal partner. If it fails, the next order will run on deals, not rules and small states will get crushed.
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Stubb’s UN reform plan is:
- Add 5 permanent seats (2 Africa, 2 Asia, 1 Latin America)
- Abolish the veto
- Suspend any state that violates the UN Charter which would have suspended Russia after 24 Feb 2022.
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Now it is buying tanks, building suicide drones, deploying troops abroad and committing €460 billion to rearmament
Isaac Stanley-Becker in The Atlantic shows how a nation built on “never again” is preparing for war again. 1/
Lt. Gen. Freuding says the old U.S.-led order is “really cut off.”
During Trump’s freeze on Ukraine weapons, Germany received no warning. German officers now hunt for information through their embassy because their Pentagon contacts have gone silent. 2/
Berlin’s answer is the Zeitenwende — Germany’s declared “turning point.”
The government vows to build “the strongest army in Europe” and, for the first time since WWII, is permanently stationing 5,000 troops abroad — Panzerbrigade 45 in Lithuania by 2027. 3/