How the West's world order lost wider trust

Dualities are commonplace in international politics. Most countries do and say different things in different situations.

- Atul Mishra

However, the contrast between Western policies vis-à-vis the Ukraine and Gaza wars is amongst the most consequential dualities of our times. It is deepening our global crisis while also tempting us with ideas of crafting a new international order.

To begin with, consider how the duality has changed the balance of reputation and moral high ground in the favour of the so-called Global South. The duality has come to be seen as the clearest proof yet of the argument that Western universal values are either false claims or, more sinisterly, a cover for practising global dominance. Western universalism claims that all humans are equal in worth, but the picture that emerges when the responses to scenes of suffering from Gaza and Ukraine are juxtaposed is of an unequal humanity.

In previous instances, when the notion of Western hypocrisy gained salience, the references usually tended to be about past actions. When Western governments and leaders spoke of democracy, human rights and rules-based behaviour in the rest of the world, the world reminded them of European colonialism, America's support for dictatorships across continents, and the military interventions that toppled regimes in West Asia, violating the sovereignty of non-Western countries. However, since these were references to actions past, and the past is a foreign country, the criticism tended to be less effective. Reality today is quite different.