The return of might is right

Is this the end of the rules-based order?

- SANTISHREE DHULIPUDI PANDIT

Or should we ask if this is the end of the illusion that the world ever truly operated under a rules-based system?The recent US intervention in Venezuela should be read less as an aberration and more as a declaration. Regime change, coercive intervention, and strategic engineering of sovereign states did not begin in the 21st century, but are being perfected through technological advancements and media (and social media) narratives.

Since World War II, regime change through coups, assassinations, proxy conflicts, and direct military interventions have been routine instruments of power. What is different now is not the act itself, but the absence of discomfort in using them. Power no longer feels compelled to justify itself at length. It acts, and the world adjusts. Europe issues statements. Institutions issue reminders. Markets respond, and life moves on.

This is not a rules-based order because that presupposes certain rules that apply to all. And this system today is not adhering to any. If anything, it is implementing them depending on convenience. World politics today has turned into an arena that is hierarchical, unequal, and increasingly brazen about it.

When a major power decides that its interests are sufficiently vital, rules become decorative.

International law is acknowledged in passing, if at all. And then, all rules are sidestepped. The possibility that Greenland could be next is no joke or provocation, but as many commentators put it, a matter of time. Geography, resources, and leverage matter more than precedent. Who needs principles when strategic advantage is on the table?