Abstract
Taking as its starting point the current upending of the post-World War II international legal order and the Transatlantic partnership that has been its backbone, this essay asks whether the changes we are witnessing constitute ‘systems change’? Are we witnessing shifts in our political, governance and legal systems that have the potential of altering the fundamental ideas on which these ‘systems’ are based? To explore this question, we examine three contemporary examples of change: the current US Administration’s attempts to sideline some of its international legal commitments and undermine the multilateral world order; the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, and the destruction of habitable territories in the Pacific due to climate catastrophes. We use these examples to explore the notion of ‘systems change’ and to discuss how scholars can approach systemic changes that challenge current normative consensus and the rule of law. Our aims in this commentary are to identify where further research is needed by focusing on breaking points in international normative frameworks; consider the consequences of the decline of universalism, and examine the nexus between the climate emergency already faced by Small Island Developing States and fragile and conflict-affected states. The disparate sites and examples are deliberate – a modest effort to de-centre the tendency of the North Atlantic to absorb scholarly attention.
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