THE PRECARIOUS STATE OF WORLD ORDER.

• Author: Kegley, Charles W., Jr.
• Position: WORLDVIEW

"... At the same time the rapid and relentless spread of COVID-19 demonstrates that international collaboration is essential for fending off the virus, the economic carnage caused by the virus may erode support for maintaining the liberal international economic order." THE GREATEST gift that the World War II generation bequeathed to us, then-U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis once told Pres. Donald Trump, is the liberal, rules-based international order. Following the defeat of the Axis powers in 1945, the U.S. used its unrivaled military and economic might to promote democracy, free trade, and international organization. Shouldering most of the costs, America laid the foundation for this new order in the West during the Cold War and extended its reach across the globe after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

When viewed in historical perspective, the rules and institutions championed by the U.S. produced remarkable results: international trade soared, standards of living rose, lifespans increased, and wars between great powers ceased. Reflecting on how previous Democratic and Republican administrations had worked assiduously to construct this order, in the closing days of his presidency, Barack Obama wrote to Trump that American leadership was indispensable. "It's up to us," he emphasized, to sustain the rules-based order "upon which our own wealth and safety depend."

Trump was unmoved. His Inaugural Address, which repudiated the rules and institutions of the post-World War II international order, foreshadowed a brusque, impulsive, unilateral approach to statecraft. Ignoring questions of grand strategy in favor of short-term tactical maneuvers, replacing mutual collaboration with winner-take-all competition, and discounting democratic allies while currying the favor of autocratic adversaries, Trump's divisive rhetoric and amoral behavior have undermined the principles and practices that nurtured peace and prosperity for decades.

His blistering attacks on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, United Nations, World Health Organization, and World Trade Organization, as well as his harsh rebukes of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Climate Accord, reveal a profound distaste for multilateralism at the very moment the world faces problems that cannot be addressed singlehandedly. It would not be surprising for China or Russia to question the prevailing international order. What alarms many national leaders is that opposition to the order's ideals and conventions now comes from its architect and guarantor--the U.S.

At the same time that the Trump Administration has abdicated America's leadership role in world affairs, rival great powers have stepped up their challenges to the existing international order. Unlike at the turn of the century, when the U.S. enjoyed a position of primacy and the "Washington consensus" on the importance of democratic governance, private enterprise, and open markets was accepted widely, the international system has moved toward a more-dispersed distribution of power.

China and Russia, the U.S.'s foremost rivals, have become more assertive in touting alternative models of international order. How the competition among these great powers will play out is uncertain. Forecasters should keep their erasers handy. While we cannot predict exactly what will happen in the future, it is worth pausing to consider some of the complex questions that foreign policymakers will have to address.

In the digital age, borders no longer are barriers. Hackers have the capacity to conduct surveillance, steal data, disseminate disinformation, and impair power grids, air traffic control systems, and anything else that is part of the so-called "Internet of Things." Sovereignty now is at bay, because no government has the control that states once maintained over their internal affairs.

Unimpeded by geography, online attacks can strike anyone's computers, extracting sensitive information, preventing access to networks, or compromising the integrity of an operating system by altering...