By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

In an opinion piece in The New York Times, the Cambridge historian Professor Margaret Macmillan explores the disintegration of the post-Second World War international system (Sep. 3).

It is the start of a new series of articles describing how countries all over the world are adjusting as America under Trump shirks its duties and responsibilities in many sectors.

Macmillan, the erudite historian, clearly sees signs of the ‘Gathering Storm’.

Like in weather storms, there are also signs in human affairs and international affairs.

But it’s possible to misread or even ignore these vital signs.

Regimes look strong, until they don’t – as in Assad’s Syria.

“Revolutions at home and upheavals in the international order – the two so often go together—are easy to see in retrospect, but are not always anticipated. Yet if we look closer, we’ll

often find the signs were there” (NYT/Macmillan).

Thus, the signs for the outbreak of WWI were there long before actual hostilities broke out.

Russia’s war on Ukraine is not sustainable, and the political and economic collapse of Russia is immanent.

Instead of pressurizing Putin to sue for peace, the Trump administration is dilly-dallying.

The main problem is that it does not have the experienced diplomats to mediate.

Nor does it realize the problems in depth.

By starting an unnecessary war with Iran (together with Israel), Trump has plunged the world into economic and humanitarian crises.

He lies through his teeth about the state of the war.

Now he claims that it is not a war at all, although he has a so-called ‘Secretary of War’ (actually of defence).

Cuts in medical and food aid, most significantly by the United States, have caused unnecessary deaths and helped the spread of disease, one of which, sooner or later, could become another pandemic.

Artificial intelligence continues its rapid, unregulated rise, threatening jobs and security, and in darker projections, even human existence.

Revisionist powers flout rules and norms with impunity.

Electorates, especially in the West, are angry and volatile. Extreme right-wing parties are gaining  in strength and threatening the stability of even such established countries as France, UK and Germany.

Slow, deliberate, necessarily discreet diplomacy, which builds trust and understanding, has given way to a performative, brash style (NYT).

The Uppsala Conflict Data programme (Sweden) recorded an unprecedented 65 state-based conflicts in 2025 – the highest number since the end of WWII.

Great powers find themselves in asymmetric wars with countries that are making the most of new technologies.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine, meant to be won in a matter of days, is creaking through its fifth year.

Iran using inexpensive, mass-produced drones to attack American forces and allies (including Gulf and other Arab countries, and Israel), has gained control of the Strait of Hormuz, perhaps permanently.

This is a crucial maritime corridor of world trade and its status is of great significance not only to the Gulf countries, but also to other regional powers and the world at large.

Here, Iran wants to become the regional hegemon 

And this development cannot be allowed to happen. The United States and the other Gulf countries are looking on helpless.

A more robust and forceful policy is required – which will also be beneficial to the Iranian people themselves.

The Iran war has also significantly reduced U.S. missile stocks which means that it cannot contain the depredations of neither Russia nor China or even of bosom pal Kim Il Un of the Hermit Kingdom.

Trump has built his own hole in a war of his own making and choice.

With his ill-thought domestic and foreign policies, Trump has also hallowed out multilateral institutions and international norms and made the world a more dangerous place.

His reckless withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization is an own goal.

This hampers other responsible countries of taking timely action from saving our common planet.

Macmillan, the perspicacious historian, doesn’t think that another world war is inevitable.

But the threat of a catastrophic conflict between large and well-armed powers is closer than it has been for decades.

Russia frustrated in Ukraine, may think an attack on a weak NATO flank as in the Baltic, may be opportune.

China, observing American weakness, may think the time is ripe to bring Taiwan home.

It seems, the world and especially the Global South, is reluctant to recognize how much the world has changed.

[Nepal itself had a rude awakening lately and it must now urgently tell the world about the grave and lurking dangers of climate change – not only seek climate justice for itself].

“The problems are thorny, complex and tedious, and it’s easier to look away” (Macmillan/NYT).

Nepal must now alone, bilaterally and multilaterally shatter the complacency of the West and its people.

Wildfires and drought cannot be ignored too.

We cannot just hope that wars will end, we must undertake concrete measures and bring diplomacy back on track.

A good place and time would be this year’s UN General Assembly, where coalitions of the willing may be built. As the saying goes: “where’s there’s a will, there is a way’.

By itself and of its own volition, the guardrails, institutions and alliances will not be rebuilt, nor will the world as we understand it, recover and endure.

Perhaps enlightened leaders from various countries will come forward and take the initiative.

We are not yet at an end – the ‘Dark Age’ or Kali Yuga has not yet arrived. United, it is still possible to save Mother Earth!

We ourselves are to blame for the current state of affairs, and we ourselves can remedy it:

“A new reality has arrived with startling speed. The world order that held together for most of our lives started to erode when those within it got to comfortable and complacent, and when there was too much acceptance – even approval – of bad behaviour” (Macmillan/NYT).

We may have arrived at a new age of disorder and we now have to recognize that our fragile international system is faltering.

We can shed crocodile tears for the end of Pax Americana and embark on the laborious process of building something afresh.

The writer can be reached at: shashimalla125@gmail.com