The global order is crumbling today, not always in a loud and dramatic fashion, but instead over many instances, manifesting as accumulating cracks, a gradual exposure of the weakness of American hegemony, and a frantic scramble among nations and powers seeking a foothold in a world being reshaped.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s and the emergence of a unipolar world, America, leading the Western bloc, has sought to contain Russia, encircle its periphery, and reduce it to a state without even regional influence. It attempted to neutralize Russia’s nuclear arsenal and intercontinental ballistic missiles, and fomented unrest in its vicinity, culminating in its involvement in a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The theory of the British historian Arnold Toynbee, who argues that the fall of civilizations begins from within, resulting from the failure of the creative elite to confront challenges and their transformation into an oppressive authority. This leads the majority to abandon the elite, causing societal unity to disintegrate, and domestic divisions to increase, ultimately causing the civilization to collapse in the face of any foreign challenge.

Al-Waie Magazine Issue 477 in English