Mitarbeiter sonstige

Europe’s International cooperation as a key component of a stable world order

Keijzer, Niels / Mark Furness
Staff - Other (2026)

in: Anna-Katharina Hornidge / Axel Berger (eds.), Disruption and Reform: sustainable futures at stake? The case for politics of cooperation and perseverance, Bonn: German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), 21-26

ISBN: 978-3-96021-292-8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.23661/r4.2026

The “post–post–Cold War” global order is in a state of disruption, to the extent that we can ask whether a “global order” still exists at all today. Powerful actors have breached the international norms and rules that underpin the global order, mostly with impunity. Europe has reacted inconsistently to these disruptions of the global order, issuing verbal and written statements in response to some crises and engaging in military and financial interventions in others, in the hope that the system will revert to its post–Cold War state. With Europe’s own territorial integrity under threat, Europe’s leadership has come to realise that this is unlikely to happen. The “post–post–Cold War” order has succeeded the global order dominated by Western democracies that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The post–Cold War order did not offer protection, stability, predictability or development opportunities to all, and some nations and peoples have not lamented its demise. Some of the woworld’s most powerful countries have wilfully violated the post–Cold War order’s basic principles, especially respect for sovereignty and human rights. The post–post–Cold War order is characterised by growing multipolarity, weakened inter-national institutions and polycrises, but also by the persistence of global norms that actors tend to interpret in ways that suit their interests. What remains of these norms and institutions needs to be reformed if there is to be any chance of saving them. Failure to do so raises the risk that Gramsci’s morbid symptoms (popularly referred to as “time of monsters”) become permanent (Gramsci, 1971). The basic principle of the post–Cold War order – that sovereign actors agree to interact on the basis of agreed rules, even when they are in conflict with each other – is crucial to the survival of human civilisation. International cooperation in support of sustainable development depends on the survival of the order and, ideally, on its further evolution in directions that make it more universal.