We have seen the conflict and tragedy that can follow when an old era collapses. Countries that believe in multilateralism must come together now
- This is the second in a two-part series on the global response to Donald Trump’s tariffs
- Read part one: Trump is pushing the world towards recession. By learning the lessons of 2008, we can still prevent it
After a week that started with the worst financial volatility in recent history and ended with the most serious escalation so far of the China-US conflict, it is time to distinguish the tectonic shifts from the tremors. If nothing changes, the 2020s risks being remembered as this century’s devil’s decade – the term historians once used for the 1930s. It will be defined not just by seven million people who have died of Covid-19 and rising global poverty and inequality – but also by a dismembered Ukraine, a burnt-out Gaza and little-reported atrocities in Africa and Asia, each testimony to the violent displacement of a rules-based global order by a power-based one.
Indeed, before our eyes, every single pillar of the old order is under assault – not just free trade but the rule of law and the primacy we have long attached to human rights and democracy, the self-determination of peoples, and multilateral cooperation between nations, including the humanitarian and environmental responsibilities we once accepted as citizens of the world.
Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
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