The Rationale Behind Institut Montaigne’s New Series: Ukraine Shifting the World Order

It seems dangers are lurking around every corner this fall. Inflation and the risk of recession are weighing down the global economy. Climate change is taking a growing toll on the planet. Tensions between Beijing and Washington sharpened on Taiwan. And above all, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marked the return of war in Europe. On February 24, we were hurled into an alternate universe where the unthinkable became a reality.

In a new series of essays, Ukraine Shifting the World Order, Institut Montaigne invites its readers to take a step back and look beyond current events. We turned to a group of distinguished authors to help us explore the following broad question: how is the war in Ukraine reshaping the world order? For many of them, behind this question naturally lies another: is the war in Ukraine not the product or symptom of a significant shift in the balance of power?

The direction we took in this survey and the essays the authors chose to write were inspired by several developing themes. First, it was apparent that significant blocs are forming again: Russia and China, Western powers that are compelled to close ranks, and the Global South that, for the most part, refuses to pick a side. Incidentally, this implicit “declaration of independence” by the Global South may be one of the most noteworthy developments since the onset of the war in February.

To help explain the "great game" that is being set in motion, we asked thinkers around the world - Russia, China, India, Brazil, and countries across Africa and the Near East - to share their views.