How world order looks after 2025

For mathematicians, 2025 may stand out as a "perfect square": 45 multiplied by 45, a rare symmetry.

- Yuen Yuen Ang

But its significance goes far beyond numerical elegance — it marks the year the postwar global order expired and a new one began.Eighty years ago, as the world emerged from World War II, the victorious Western Allies designed a system intended to prevent another catastrophic conflict. The result was a global order based on three intertwined promises: geopolitical stability anchored by American leadership, industrial progress that would steadily raise living standards, and globalisation that would spread prosperity through trade and integration.

That postwar order delivered real achievements. In the West, a burgeoning middle class enjoyed political freedom and economic prosperity. Globally, hundreds of millions of people were lifted out of poverty. For a time, the direction of history seemed clear and, particularly after the end of the Cold War, even inevitable.

But, with hindsight, the postwar order carried the seeds of its demise. Authority was concentrated within Western-led institutions that claimed to speak for the world. US hegemony often led to overreach and hubris: a generation of wars in the Middle East proved costly, and confidence in the US model's superiority obscured the reality of domestic decay.

Globalisation entrenched a lopsided bargain. Low-cost manufacturing in poorer countries allowed consumers in richer ones to buy abundantly, but at a global environmental cost. As firms in America and Europe moved production overseas, local communities lost jobs and vitality. At the same time, financialisation made it easier to accumulate wealth simply through speculation and stock-price inflation, further enriching the richest without delivering social value.