COVERAGE
IAFA’S PANEL DISCUSSION ON A
THEME OF HUGE CURRENT RELEVANCE:
IS THERE AN INTERNATIONAL ORDER?
Amb. Surendra Kumar moderating the Q&A session
I
s there an international order? Where are we headed?
Supported by India Habitat Centre & Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary Diplomatist was held at Gulmohar, IHC
on15th April 2019. It led to a stimulating discussion on how
we have arrived where we have on a global level and where
we are heading to in the short and long term.
The consensus was that multiple factors have contributed
to our current situation. These include:
• The collapse of the Soviet Union
• Expansion of globalisation
• The rise of China and the emergence of growing
economies like India
• The fi nancial meltdown of 2008
• The decline in the role and eff ectiveness of International
Organisations like the UN and the WTO the tendency of
major powers to ignore the UN and play by their own rules
•
•
The continuing menace of terrorism
The aftereff ects of interventions in Iraq, Afghanistan,
Libya and Syria
• The pursuits of competing goals by the US, Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf countries as well as Russia,
China and Bashar- Al- Assad in Syria
• The rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia
• Violence and radicalisation promoted by Al Qaeda and
ISIS
• disruptive and unorthodox policies of Donald Trump
protectionist trade policies
• Environmental crises
• Leapfrogging of technology and explosion in
aspirations of the youth all across the globe.
Amb. Shyam Saran opined that most of the changes
which we are witnessing today are technology driven and
26 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 4 • April-May 2019, Noida