The Rules-Based Order Is in Crisis: What Comes Next?
Is the world doomed to live under an increasingly discredited and selective “rules-based international order” (RBIO) instead of an inclusive order centered on international law? Is the RBIO the only construct that can strengthen American security and prevent the world from descending into chaos, or is a better alternative possible?
The Quincy Institute’s Better Order Project has brought together more than 130 experts, scholars, and practitioners from over 40 countries to collectively develop a package of proposals aimed at rejuvenating and stabilizing the international order, based on shared commitments to international law, multilateralism, and the ability of states to participate on an equal basis.
Over three webinars, we discussed several of these proposals with some of the international participants in the Better Order Project and addressed how to chart a smoother path through today’s rocky transition away from unipolarity:
- Panel #1: The ‘rules-based international order’ — A path toward stability or a recipe for rivalry?
- Panel #2: Economic Coercion and Military Force — Taming unilateralism in a changing world
- Panel #3: How to reform the UN Security Council to save multilateralism
Program
Entities
Panelists
Antonio de Aguiar Patriota
Antonio Patriota is the current Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom. He served as Brazil’s Foreign Minister from 2011 to 2013 and as Deputy Foreign Minister from 2009 to 2010. His diplomatic career includes positions as Ambassador to the United States (2007-2009), Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2013-2016), Ambassador to Italy (2016-2019), and to Egypt (2019-2023).
Michael Mazarr
Dr. Michael Mazarr is a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation. Prior to coming to RAND he served as Professor of National Security Strategy and Associate Dean at the U.S. National War College, special assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, president and CEO of the Henry L. Stimson Center, senior vice president for strategic planning at the Electronic Industries Alliance, legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, and senior fellow and editor of The Washington Quarterly at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Aslı U. Bâli
Dr. Aslı U. Bâli is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School, focusing on public international law, human rights, and comparative constitutional law, especially in the Middle East. Before her academic career, she worked for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and was an associate at Cleary Gottlieb, specializing in international transactions and sovereign representation.
Moeed W. Yusuf
Moeed Yusuf is the Vice Chancellor of Beaconhouse National University. Yusuf previously served as National Security Adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan with the rank of Federal Minister. Before his stint in government, he was the associate vice president of the Asia center at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C.
Nathalie Tocci
Dr. Nathalie Tocci is Director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali, part-time professor at the European University Institute, and Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen. She has served as Special Advisor to EU High Representatives Federica Mogherini and Josep Borrell, authoring the European Global Strategy and aiding its implementation. Dr. Tocci is also an independent non-executive director of multi utility company, Acea.
Fyodor Lukyanov
Fyodor Lukyanov has been the Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs since 2002, a platform for dialogue among Russian and foreign experts on shared development in a changing world. He is also the Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy and teaches at the Higher School of Economics.
Georg Sparber
Georg Sparber is Ambassador of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the United States of America since 2021. He also serves as Liechtenstein’s Permanent Observer to the Organization of American States. Before assuming his current duties, he held the position of Deputy Permanent Representative of Liechtenstein to the United Nations in New York since January 2017. His portfolio included disarmament, peace and security and political issues.
Naledi Pandor
Naledi Pandor is the former Minister for International Relations and Cooperation for the Republic of South Africa. She served as a cabinet minister in the South African government from 2004-2024, previously serving as Minister of Education (2004 – 2009), Minister of Science and Technology (2009 –2012), Minister of Home Affairs (2012 – 2014), Minister of Science and Technology (2014 – 2018) and Minister of Higher Education and Training (2018 – 2019).
Zachary Paikin
Dr. Zachary Paikin is deputy director of the Better Order Project and research fellow in the Grand Strategy Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He is also senior fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy (IPD), a Canadian international affairs think tank. Previously, Dr. Paikin was researcher in EU Foreign Policy at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) in Brussels from 2021 to 2023 and senior researcher in the International Security Dialogue Department at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) from 2023 to 2024.
Trita Parsi
Trita Parsi is the executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. He is a award-winning author and the 2010 recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. He is an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian foreign policy, and the geopolitics of the Middle East. He has authored three books on US foreign policy in the Middle East, with a particular focus on Iran and Israel. He was named by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 25 most influential voices on foreign policy in Washington DC in both 2021 and 2022, and preeminent public intellectual Noam Chomsky calls Parsi “one of the most distinguished scholars on Iran.”