La guerra in Ucraina e la disgregazione dell'ordine internazionale

The war in Ukraine is likely to mark a turning point in the international re- lations of the 21st century. Firstly, it risks enhancing the dangerous bipolarization of the international system around the competition between the West and its ene- mies. Secondly, it reinforces this bipolarization with a growing militarization of relations between the main powers. Moreover, it deals a new blow to economic globalization, after those which had already resulted by the economic-financial cri- sis of 2007-08 and the pandemic of Covid19. However, the war in Ukraine has not caused the collapse of the international order; actually, it is only the outcome of a collapse already underway for at least fifteen years. Such collapse has been accompanied, as always in history, by a number of typical processes: the increasing challenge of the rising powers to what is left of the previous hegemonic order; the fallout of this challenge on the international political space, i.e. the tendency for the rising powers to build regional spheres of influence against the global influence of the United States and Europe; the weakening of the institutional fabric of inter- national coexistence; eventually, the crisis of all its fundamental principles, those which prescribe who are the subjects of the international order and what rules they must follow in their relations.