MULTIPOLAR DISORDER: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, CLIMATE SECURITY AND THE COLLAPSE OF LIBERAL MULTILATERALISM.

Abstract

The international liberal Order (ILO) of the mid-2020s, the system of democratic governance, multilateral institutions, and rules-based international relations, is at a moment of systemic crisis. In this paper, we argue that the crisis is driven by three converging forces: (1) the strategic norm-setting agenda of an emerging authoritarian bloc led by China, Russia and their allies; (2) the weaponization of artificial intelligence as a force multiplier for disinformation, electoral interference and the erosion of democratic epistemics; and (3) the catastrophic failure of multilateral climate governance amid intensifying great-power competition. This study critically analyses how these forces are interacting with the domestic fragmentation of Western democracies through economic populism, cultural nationalism and institutional distrust, using Critical Theory as an analytical lens. The study critically analyses how these forces interact with the domestic fragmentation of western democracies through economic populism, cultural nationalism and distrust of institutions. Case studies from the United States, France, Germany, and Italy show how the liberal order is being challenged from without and hollowed from within at the same time. The paper concludes that even a reformed liberal order needs to confront not only authoritarian challengers but also the structural failings of liberal governance itself in order to be sustained.