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Our world is in a spiral of crises. While conventional threats, such as famine, drought, civil war and genocide, continue to loom over humanity in many parts of the world, the race to assume control of new phenomena that have the potential to change the world – such as novel communications and weapons technologies, artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies – is also gaining pace and posing new threats to our collective wellbeing.
Our current “rules-based international order”, which was established in the aftermath of World War II to increase global cooperation, generate economic prosperity, prevent wars, and ensure stability, equality and justice is struggling to navigate these complex challenges and falling short of preventing violations of its founding principles. A state of irregularity, which benefits only a handful of powerful countries and interest groups while spelling catastrophe for the masses, is close to becoming the new normal of the global order. Therefore, it is now not a preference but an obligation to make comprehensive reforms to the system to prevent this scenario from becoming reality.
We need a fairer, more stable and just world order.
Today, certain states are stomping on the rules, norms and values at the very heart of the established international system with little care for the far-reaching consequences of their actions. Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon and Palestine are the most striking examples of such blatant violations. As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly underlined in every platform for many months, Israel’s aggression must be stopped for regional peace and global stability to be achieved. But those few countries with undue power over the international system – the “superpowers” of our time – are protecting Israel and allowing it to act with impunity. As a result of such actions, our current system is now unable to fulfil its core purpose.
We need a new system, shaped and led not by these self-interested superpowers but the global majority. The hypocritical, discriminatory and conflict-fostering actions of these superpowers, especially in the last quarter of a century, have deprived them of the legitimacy to play a leading role in a new order. We cannot have another international system in which the majority of the countries and peoples of the world are exploited to benefit a few superpowers. International organisations and states with a privileged position in the existing system must understand this reality and adjust their strategies for the new era accordingly.
In recent years, Turkiye has been one country that has consistently worked towards a fairer, more peaceful and just world. Its constructive efforts in mediation and successes in peacebuilding have demonstrated that a new era of international relations based on justice, understanding and cooperation is possible. Turkiye’s mediation to secure a ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its initiatives to build the Black Sea grain deal, for example, have played a vital role in preventing a global food crisis. As Erdogan repeatedly asserts: “The world is bigger than five” and “a fairer world is possible.”
G20 can help build a fairer world
The global community can overcome the many crises facing our world today. We have the means, the will and the capacity. But to achieve this result, influential international organisations must urgently take action to start building a fairer and more equitable system.
The Group of 20 (G20), which consists of 19 developed and rising economies, the European Union and the African Union, has significant potential for laying the foundations for a more stable global international financial system.
The annual G20 summit began on Monday in Brazil under the respectable theme Building a Fairer World and a Sustainable Planet. The G20 summits and activities traditionally focus on economic issues, but in attempting to build a “fairer world”, the grouping cannot remain indifferent to unjust and distorted practices of international politics. The crises and conflicts that our world is experiencing today will determine the future of the G20 and its members. Thus, this year’s G20 summit is an important opportunity for the group’s members to come up with a collective response to these challenges and take important steps towards building a new international order.
First and foremost, the G20 and each of its members can treat this summit as an opportunity to renew their commitments to promoting solidarity, establishing an equitable interest mechanism, and supporting disadvantaged social groups and countries.
Emerging economies coming together under the umbrella of the G20, meanwhile, can assume the additional role of balancing the influence of actors aiming to create monopolies in the global economy and help guarantee a fairer economic distribution. Member states can also use this meeting as an opportunity to begin establishing common policies on issues such as climate change and artificial intelligence, which have the potential to shape the global economy in the coming years.
The policies the G20 decides to implement on these and other pressing issues of our time will help determine what future system we will have – one where a small and powerful group of countries maintains its privileges and the rest of the world continues to struggle with crises or one where resources are fairly distributed and common welfare/development mechanisms are established.
The G20 members also need to address the “crisis of truth” that is deepening the crisis in our international system. Today, the future of humanity is at the mercy of technologies – especially communication technologies – it created. The new problems that have emerged in the era of internet and social media, such as online privacy violations, data security problems, cyber-threats, hybrid wars and digital fascism, are all deepening the problems we are having in global politics and the economy.
Unfortunately, so far, humanity has failed to develop effective policies, strategies, responses and ethical codes against the challenges posed by digital technologies. Many technological innovations that have expanded the possibilities for societies and individuals to interact have turned into weapons of mass manipulation at the hands of malevolent forces. As we have witnessed in the past few years, these tools are being used to spread disinformation and to conceal war crimes, massacres and even genocides. The struggle for truth, like the struggle for justice, has become a common issue for all humanity that requires global cooperation.
If it is to play a leading role in bringing an end to the crisis in our current international system and help build a “fairer world” for all, the G20 will have to make addressing the problems relating to communication one of its priorities, and especially join the fight against disinformation.
As our president says, “a fairer world is possible,” but influential international organisations – like the G20 – need to start working towards it now.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
English (US)