A “good enough” world order a gardener’s manual

Abstract

We stand at an extraordinary and challenging moment in world history. The twin, interrelated crises of COVID-19 and the breakdown of economic globalization have demonstrated both the weakness of current “world order” (or perhaps the lack of world order) and the urgent need for some kind of framework to manage these and future challenges going forward. Put another way, the most pressing issues facing us—to include the looming potential calamity from humaninduced climate change and pandemic disease, technological transformation brought on by revolutions in information and biotechnology, and global economic insecurity—seem to require ever more international cooperation, at the very time that existing arrangements seem less likely than ever to produce this cooperation. Growing rivalry between major powers, coupled with increasing nationalism and popular distrust of political institutions, severely complicate any effort to facilitate the transnational efforts needed to address these challenges. Existing international institutions and arrangements have fallen short in rising to the task.