For many years now, the erosion of the previous liberal, rule-based and value-oriented international order has been evident, and since Donald Trump's re-election at the latest, it has been gathering pace rapidly. There is talk of a pre-war period, and Europe appears at a loss. The frantic attempts to regain Germany's ability to act through massive rearmament mask the lack of a European strategy. Europe is in danger of being crushed between the major world powers. International politics has always been shaped by visions, values and national identities: while a public titanic struggle between liberals, neo-conservatives, realists and libertarians is taking place in the USA, Russia and China, the two other major players in international politics, are developing new concepts of international politics aimed at breaking the dominance of the West. Julian Nida-Rümelin's essay contributes to intellectual clarity in times of great confusion, outlines the vision of a multipolar but cooperative world order, and advocates a return to an ethically based realpolitik of peacekeeping.
Essay
Julian Nida-Rümelin is a philosopher and political theorist. He was director of the Geschwister Scholl Institute for Political Science in Munich and professor of philosophy at the universities of Tübingen, Göttingen, Munich and Berlin, as well as visiting professor in the USA, Italy and China. His research focuses on decision theory, ethics and political philosophy. He was head of the interdisciplinary working group on international justice at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and is the founding rector of the Humanist University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.
