The Making and Unmaking of World Order

The world order that shaped the twentieth century is coming apart. What will replace it?The Making and Unmaking of World Order offers a sweeping examination of how international orders are created, challenged, and ultimately transformed. Moving from the Great Depression, World War II, and the birth of the United Nations to decolonization, the Cold War, neoliberal globalization, the rise of China, the return of great-power rivalry, and the accelerating age of artificial intelligence, this book traces the forces that have shaped the modern international system.Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad brings history, geopolitics, political economy, technology, and civilizational analysis into a single intellectual framework. He examines the institutions and ideas that sustained the liberal international order, as well as the crises that have weakened its legitimacy: economic inequality, populism, war, technological disruption, climate change, surveillance, resource competition, and the erosion of democratic confidence.The book pays particular attention to the emergence of a multipolar world. It explores the strategic competition between the United States and China, Russia’s challenge to the post-Cold War settlement, the growing influence of BRICS, the changing position of the Global South, and the renewed importance of non-alignment. It also investigates how artificial intelligence, digital platforms, programmable money, autonomous warfare, and control over advanced computing may reshape global power.Rather than treating the future as predetermined, The Making and Unmaking of World Order develops multiple scenarios for the decades ahead-from cooperative multilateralism and fragmented multipolarity to authoritarian resurgence and systemic disorder. It asks not only which states will dominate, but also who will possess the authority to define reality, produce knowledge, establish international norms, and determine the boundaries of political possibility.Written for readers of international relations, geopolitics, global history, political science, strategic studies, futures studies, and international political economy, this substantial work provides an ambitious guide to the past, present, and possible futures of global order.For anyone seeking to understand the crisis of the liberal international order, the rise of China, the new Cold War, the geopolitical consequences of artificial intelligence, and the changing balance of power in the twenty-first century, this book offers a wide-ranging and timely analysis.