Since the end of the 1980s the global order has been in decay. 'Global order' here means two things. First, it means any system of governance for international relations. In this sense, its principal dimensions are (a) the ways in which, and the frequency with which, actors resort to organized violence to try to realize their objectives vis-à-vis others, and the relationship between violent and non-violent forms of conflict management; (b) the distribution of power and authority in the system; (c) the degree to which checks and balances exist against overwhelming power, and the forms those checks take; and (d) the levels of legitimacy enjoyed by actors who exercise power. Second, 'global order' is used in the normative sense of 'good order'. We may call this sense, characterized by norms such as non-violent conflict management, participation and social justice, 'thick', as opposed to the 'thin' order provided by any arrangement of governance. 1 That global order should have become 'thinner' since 1990 is perhaps not very surprising. With all its horrors, the Cold War may be seen as a remarkable artefact of politics. Albeit at the risk of annihilating civilization, and at enormous costs to the societies sucked into it, the bipolar framework of the East-West conflict restrained violence and channelled it into a highly choreographed arms race, imposed checks and balances on power, and helped to underpin the political legitimacy of regimes and alliances within each bloc. 2 Almost as a side-effect, it also created the global institutional and political * Many thanks go to my colleagues Sebastian Harnisch, Marco Overhaus, Joachim Schild and Siegfried Schieder for their very helpful comments at short notice. I also want to express my sense of appreciation and gratitude to the organizers of and participants in the Transatlantic Workshop set up by the Mortara Center for International Studies, Edward A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, at the Arrabida Monastery in Portugal on 5-8 May 2005 for their input and our inspiring discussions. The usual attribution of eventual culpabilities nevertheless applies. 7 James N. Rosenau, Turbulence in world politics: a theory of change and continuity (New York: Harvester, 1990).
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