Middle Powers and the Global South in a Multipolar Era: Reconfiguring the Liberal International Order
Journal: The Scientific Journal of Oxford College for International Education
Year: 2026

The LIO has been touted, for most of the post–Cold War era, as a set of universal rules and institutions anchored in U.S. primacy, market openness, and multilateral cooperation. But that order was always, in fact, characterized by power asymmetries, selective enforcement of norms, and uneven benefits across regions. Today, it is under severe strain. Great-power rivalry, war in Ukraine, ongoing violence in the Middle East, economic insecurity, and climate breakdown are remaking how states underst