AN ANALYSIS OF CHANGING WORLD ORDERS

Abstract

It is important to understand the nature of international relations and to do that it is important to understand the nature of various world orders within which international relations were conducted. Orders are designed to bring sanity in international relations that are conducted in an anarchic international environment. Great powers take the responsibility of setting up orders and when they same great powers make mistakes and their power declines, they cede space for other rising powers to create a new order. All orders seek to establish basic rules of international conduct and the power that leads the order takes it as its responsibility not to allow these rules to be violated. However, when the very power that leads the order violates the established rules that it was supposed to defend then it loses its credibility and moral standing to lead the order. Rise of other powers and the balance of power holding the order together shifts thus creating the necessary circumstances for the deterioration of this order until it finally expires. This paper attempts to analyze the various world orders that have existed and how the current US led order may expire and be replaced by an order of multipolarity.