Trend Four pillars of the liberal international order come under simultaneous pressure

Summary

The authors identify four supports that held up the post-Cold War liberal order: the UN in politics and diplomacy, the WTO in trade, a dollar-based reserve currency in finance and alliance-based collective security. They argue that the second Trump administration's foreign policy is damaging the core of that structure and shaking all four supports at the root. This is not presented as an accident but as the product of several overlapping forces. They list China's rise and intensifying hegemonic rivalry with the United States, growing isolationism and self-first sentiment inside the United States, and weakening global payment influence of the dollar amid domestic doubts about it. Geopolitical competition tied to Russia's growing weight in Eurasia is added as a further driver of structural pressure on the old order.