There are clear indications that the world is no longer traveling on an upward track. The current journey of the world is on a downward track, and the need for an immediate course correction is the responsibility of the four great powers — the United States, China, Russia and the European Union. Liberal internationalism has failed as an order, and so has the momentum of globalisation, which has been unsuccessful in bringing the world closer together.

Democracies all over the world are degenerating, lapsing, regressing and retreating. All anti-communist dictators that the United States supported in the past and installed during the Cold War to create favorable regimes in Latin America, Africa Middle East and Asia are dead, but others wearing democratic suits have taken their place.

Nationalism, protectionism and revisionism are eating what is left of cosmopolitanism, and anti-immigration laws and racism are back as the picture posters of a world in a downward spiral. The brutality of the two World Wars forced the world to understand the importance of adherence to international norms. These norms are being set aside now with impunity, and states like Israel now demonstrate that state behaviour is no more constrained by international norms.

During the bipolar moment of the world, the world order rested on both the balance of power and legitimacy — a world conforming to laws and rules. Legitimacy today is on a downslide. That can be seen in how Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza with absolute freedom from the consequences of its actions.

Loss of legitimacy is being demonstrated in how the........

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