MORAL COMPASS FOR WORLD

ESTABLISHING A NEW VALUES-BASED SYSTEM IS NOT UTOPIAN; IT IS STRATEGICALLY NECESSARY

- Adriana Abdenur

Even before US President Donald Trump launched his assault on the global economy, it was facing not only a structural crisis but a collapse in the values that once justified and guided international cooperation.

The retraction of multilateralism reflects not just weakened institutions and geopolitical tensions, but also a loss of shared principles for international cooperation and a shift toward unilateralism, transactional diplomacy, and zero-sum nationalism.

Far-right political forces have accelerated this erosion by turning ideals like gender equality, climate justice, and Indigenous rights into objects of ridicule. Such culture-war rhetoric is undermining the ethical foundations of both democracy and global cooperation, with the populist backlash against solidarity and shared responsibility crossing into the international arena. As nationalism displaces multilateralism, international cooperation is losing its moral direction. In addition, as Hannah Arendt warned, the absence of shared values erodes the human capacity for judgment and opens the door to authoritarianism. Trust collapses, cooperation becomes purely transactional, and instability becomes the norm. International governance becomes brittle; diplomacy becomes coercive. Perceived injustice and ineffectiveness fuels resentment and resistance. A world order driven solely by geopolitics and expanding notions of national security inevitably breeds short-termism, deepens divisions, and heightens the chance of major conflict. No single actor, however powerful, is insulated from these risks.