The Iran war did not arrive without a library. Every development since February 28 — the collapsing ceasefire, the Security Council vetoes, the Global South paying costs it did not vote for — was anticipated by books written long before the first strike.
The liberal international order is not collapsing — it is being renegotiated. The Global South is asserting agency. China and Russia are offering alternatives. The United States is retracting. What emerges will be less Western, less institutionalised and harder to predict.
The Global South is no longer content to be managed by institutions it did not design. From BRICS to the African Union to India’s G20 presidency, developing nations are demanding a seat at the table — and in some cases, building a different table entirely.
