End of the Order

Last month in Sarajevo, I asked a guide to take me to the street corner where Gavrilo Princip (pictured) ignited the First World War by shooting dead Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie.

It was haunting to reflect on the consequences: 20 million dead; the collapse of three empires; the passing of a global system. Not just that: the unresolved problems of the First World War led directly to the even greater carnage of 1939-1945.

It was only after 1945 that we managed to create mechanisms for managing conflict: the United Nations; the Geneva Conventions; the Genocide Convention; in due course the Rome Statute; and the International Criminal Court. These institutions became part of what we called the ‘rules-based international order’. Britain and the United States were at the heart of a structure designed to head off the chain reaction which led to global carnage.

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