The “Better Order Project”: Quincy Institute’s Ambitious Yet Realistic Proposal

The world requires stronger norms and laws to re-establish an inclusive global order based on international law, multilateralism, and the ability of states to play on an equal footing to secure peace, stability, and a fighting chance against transnational threats.

In a time when discussions about the international order often fall into two extremes, either a sentimental defence of American dominance or unclear suggestions for a “multipolar world”, the Better Order Project distinguishes itself. It offers specific, politically realistic actions for building a truly inclusive global security system based on international law.

What Is the Better Order Project?

The Better Order Project argues that the future does not lie in forming a coalition of similar states under the so-called rules-based international order, nor in establishing a competing order led by other major powers. The shifting balance of power and the growing influence of the Global South ensure that no single state or group of states can unilaterally determine the terms of the international order.

The project has released a significant report, Toward a Better Security Order. This report gathers insights from over 130 experts, scholars, and practitioners from more than 40 countries, representing perspectives from Australia to Brazil, Egypt to Russia, and China to South Africa.

Jointly, they have produced 20 proposals in seven policy areas that are bold and ambitious, yet politically realistic. The intellectual aspirations of the project are mirrored in its geographical diversity. It is not a Western think-tank exercise in the language of universality. The signatories are diplomats, academics, former ministers, and strategic thinkers from the Global South, Europe, Asia, and beyond, giving the document a credibility few comparable initiatives can claim.

The Problem: An Order Under Strain

The project’s starting diagnosis is frank and well-evidenced. The world is heading towards three major crises that seriously threaten the future of international peace and stability. First, the global distribution of power has changed rapidly in the last several decades, but the institutions and mechanisms of global governance have not been adapted to this reality. This means that the next decade will be marked by ever more intense competition between great powers, and sharp conflicts between great powers and emerging powers, as well as the global majority.

Second, the world faces a new set of interconnected challenges in various transnational domains, including climate change, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies, as well as aspects of the global commons likely to fall victim to “weaponized interdependence,” such as financial systems.

Third, and perhaps most provocatively for a Washington-based institution to say aloud: the reaction of the United States to its fading dominance has oscillated between denial, bloc formation to prolong America’s dominant position, and increasingly assertive policies such as tariffs, aggressive military posturing, and frontal assaults on multilateral institutions and international norms.

The report........

© New Eastern Outlook