This, in turn, almost guarantees that a small or medium-sized country would find itself unable even to aspire to anything resembling independent agency—to being an actor in the international order. They will neither subscribe entirely to any outsider’s vision of world order nor accept any claims of primacy, international leadership, or spheres of interest. The side that will be better able to manoeuvre to occupy the space in between will determine the future course of world order. Whatever the new world order ends up looking like, it will not be a world order held together by Western ‘values’, as has been the case for several centuries. 39 Ilham Aliyev, ‘Remarks to the ADA University International Forum on Facing the New World Order’, President.az (9 April 2025), https://president.az/en/articles/view/68514.

Source: CNN December 26, 2025 09:03 UTC