Scholarly Contributions | International Relations Theory

NEW WORLD ORDER

Professor Abdul Aziz Said’s long life and career spanned decades of global change. Born into an underdeveloped country under colonial rule, he witnessed the independence of formerly colonized states, revolutionary movements of repressed populations, a new global landscape with emerging new states and other actors, the end of the Cold War, the emergence of international terrorism, and more. It is perhaps no wonder that a central theme throughout his career was the recognition that these new global conditions require a new globalist perspective.

For Said, the traditional approaches within international relations and international development – such as the realist and power politics paradigms, competitive model of global politics, and assumption that Western knowledge and experiences are superior and can be applied universally – are outdated and ineffective. They “suffer from conceptual inadequacy,”¹ especially when facing an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world. The status quo-oriented approaches of US foreign policy that sought to preserve the international balance of power fail within an environment of rapid change. The conditions of the world have substantially shifted, but we have not adjusted. Said recognized in a 1981 article, however, that we have options in how we want to proceed and can make a “commitment to a different way of choosing the future.”² The collapse of the Soviet empire, when “all international landmarks have been suddenly swept away,” strengthened Said’s view that “we have to invent our own maps.”³ Said later writes in 2006 that “diverse interest groups (be they terrorist, nongovernmental organizations, or bloggers) are using a unique combination of new technology and age-old religious, ethnic, and ideological identity archetypes” to confront the inequitable outcomes of globalization. In this climate, we need “a more flexible and dynamic world system.”⁴

Said points us toward a new world order that embraces international pluralism, holistic approaches, and human creativity, and that is shaped by a cooperative model of global politics. Through the years he articulated four steps⁵ toward a more just world order, each emphasizing our interdependence. The first is a promotion of a balance of power based not on military or economic strength but on a “global system of checks and balances.” A viable global balance of power cannot be status quo-oriented; rather, it is a system in which everyone plays a role, the marginalized are empowered, and the powerful are held accountable.⁶ A second step is to build a basic global agreement on priorities. This contributes to fostering a global community as different groups feel they have a common purpose and a shared stake in success. An expanded global civil society sector is critical to this process.⁷ The next step is the promotion of human rights and cultural diversity. Said focused on integrating and invigorating movements of human rights as well as ecological and sustainable development. He emphasized the need to align human rights principles and their application, specifically naming poverty as “the greatest and most widespread violation of human rights today” and noting that “’Cold War I’ has been replaced by ‘Cold War II,’ a struggle between rich and poor nations.”⁸ Finally, the last step toward a new world order entails building a broad consensus – as the most effective political tool among equal peoples and governments.⁹ Said defined his ideas on cooperative global politics as a departure from the zero-sum competitive power politics model, recognizing that the benefits of international stability cannot be reached by one country on its own.

This new world order must recognize our oneness and the “essential spiritual nature of humankind.”¹⁰ For Said, “world order becomes a historical process whereby human beings choose and create their future within the context of their environment to achieve a humanist and creative society.”¹¹ Indeed, a central element of Said’s vision for a new world order is an acknowledgement and commitment to spiritual values. This is a theme seen throughout much of his writing, particularly in the later years of his career. Spirituality for Said “transcends the boundaries of religion, suggesting broader human involvement that comes from the inner essence of a human being.”¹² The positivist sciences cannot capture everything that is in our nature as humans or in our world, hence we must be open to understanding spiritual values. In his publication Bridges Not Barriers, Said writes that any vision of a new world order “with a chance of succeeding must incorporate spiritual principles because of spirituality’s exclusive ability to transcend material and cultural gaps.”¹³ In an article with Dr. Nathan Funk, Said draws on principles of Sufism, a mystical body of religious practice within Islam, to further demonstrate the need to tap into spiritual resources and wisdoms in order to respond to contemporary challenges. They write, “achieving a unifying global consensus as a basis of a just world order is possible. The essence of such a vision must be felt as well as rationally argued, because it involves both the head and the heart.”¹⁴

Dr. Said articulated a clear role for US foreign policy toward a new world order. The US must better acknowledge global interdependence, which means discarding the “old system of cynical, fear-based politics” to instead establish new “international relationships based on mutual trust and consistency in behavior.”¹⁵ This includes encouraging and expressing “confidence in other nations to adopt institutions that authentically represent and give voice to their peoples – not because of American coercion but because of the intrinsic merit and legitimacy of the institutions themselves.”¹⁶ Said was also attuned to the need for a new form of education to foster social change and a more egalitarian global community. In particular, “the first generation of global citizens will need a model of education that is capable of constantly inventing and creating new solutions to the world’s increasingly complex problems.” This is a significant shift from present systems of education, as it requires developing our capacities for both logic and intuition, and “engaging in a genuine human dialogue based on the equal dignity of each individual … global citizenship depends on the development of thought and feeling, head and heart” (see also Peace Education).¹⁷

Both a new form of diplomacy and a new approach to education are critical to Said’s vision of a new world order, one which ultimately reflects a world peace that “embodies more than simply the absence of war, encompassing the ideals of freedom and justice for all and the eradication of poverty.”¹⁸ For Said, peace is not an abstract goal but instead, as his students over the years heard him say, peace is “a dynamic process of doing and being. Peace is a process.”¹⁹

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