Former diplomat and foreign policy expert M.K. Bhadrakumar warns that the current international scenario is “extremely chaotic, chaotic to the point of dangerous,” with the risk of conflicting interests and shifting coalitions escalating to the brink of a third world war. “This is the international scenario. I'm sorry to say it's quite grim,” he said while talking at the Kerala Economic Conference conducted by the Kerala Economic Association at Thiruvananthapuram.
Explaining the chaotic situation in the international scene, Bhadrakumar said that the United States cannot any longer impose its domination, and the western world is in very serious decline. “You take Europe also, the powerhouse of Europe, that is Germany, is in recession… One feature of the world order was the dollar's status as a world currency. And now that is also being seriously challenged and, you know, new groupings like BRICS are exploring new pathways for payment system,” he said.
Bhadrakumar also observed that nobody has, as it is today, any clear idea of what kind of a new world order must be shaped up. “The animosity has come to a point that the United States in the last three and a half years was not at all exchanging words with Russia. And the distrust between China and the United States has gone to such an extent that there is no way that they could work together,” he said while adding that a middle order situation is extremely chaotic.
“And if Trump moves forward to building a peaceful coexistence with Russia and China, the three preeminent superpowers in the world order today, then things can work well. But if they cannot, say, in America itself, in American politics itself, if there is a backlash and the forces that Trump is generating, a backlash begins, then it is anybody's guess where it can go to,” he said.
BHadrakumar added that Russia and China has floated some ideas for a new world order, but none of this has got any kind of legitimacy so far.
“In order for them to have legitimacy, the world institutions have to be changed,” he said. “For example, we have the IMF, World Bank and such institutions where the United States is very high level of presence at the decision-making level. Now, how do you accommodate the new forces? India included. India's GDP is almost coming to the level of the third largest in the world. So such countries, how are they going to be accommodated? So a pattern has to be worked out in that direction and it will take time,” said Bhadrakumar.