If the past few years marked the age of "polycrisis," then 2026 is the dawn of a new world disorder. This era of disorder is being defined not by rules for nations and rights for individuals, but instead notable for the absence of both. As a result, humanitarian crises have skyrocketed and nearly 240 million people require humanitarian assistance. 

The IRC’s 2026 Emergency Watchlist, which identifies the 20 countries most at risk of worsening humanitarian crisis, suggests that we are in uncharted waters, a Wildean portrait of the decaying promise of the post-World War II international order.

This new era of disorder is defined by competing powers, shifting alliances, and transactional deal-making that in turn undermines global cooperation, enables conflicts fought for power and influence, and tramples protections for the most vulnerable.

The crisis in Sudan reflects this new world disorder. Topping the IRC’s Emergency Watchlist for the third year in a row, Sudan is not just home to the largest humanitarian crisis today but the largest ever. 

No longer merely an internal civil war, Sudan is a crucible of external interference and regional competition; of business models powered by the spoils of war, as warring parties and their regional backers vie for control of gold mines, trade routes and weapons; and of diplomacy castrated by geopolitical competition. An estimated 21 million Sudanese people face critical levels of hunger, 12 million have been forcibly displaced, and in the latest chapter of horrors in Darfur,

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