How to Run the World

Abstract

The relationship between globalisation, sovereignty, power and security is now more inextricably linked in the normally competing scholarly literatures of International Relations than at any time in the recent past. Trends in contemporary world order can only be understood by an examination of the changing nature of the relationship between sovereignty and security under conditions of economic globalisation. The context in which such a sweeping statement can be made is, of course, the world since 9/11. This article presents paradoxes of global interdependence to argue that the present world order has already been broken for years and that globalisation has led us into an even more chaotic era, in which the leading world powers and institutions only pretend they can cope. Instead of working through interdependence, the world is becoming increasingly divided through different power centres like the US, Europe and China. Rather than offering one-off solutions and grand-bargains for the inequalities of power in the globalised world, this essay prescribes the need to improve global diplomatic endeavours as nations, corporations, or faiths can only learn to respect one another’s power and values by sharing and negotiating knowledge.