Recently, especially after several speeches by Russian President Vladimir Putin at various landmark international meetings, in particular at the 28th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 20, 2025, the use of the phrase "new world order" has increased in the Russian media. As you know, this concept was popular in the West in the 1980s and especially in the 1990s after the destruction of the Soviet Union, and even in the early 2000s, but after the so-called "Global Financial Crisis" of 2008, it has fallen out of use. Mainly because nothing "new" could have been created during the dark period that began with this landmark event. In Russia, the main meaning of this concept, expressed in the "innovative" language, boils down to the following. The term "new world order" means a transitional stage in which international institutions continue to operate, but the level of trust in them is decreasing; globalization is not disappearing, but is becoming more politicized; multipolarity is increasing, but by itself does not guarantee either greater justice or greater sustainability.
This is a process of redistribution of power between states and regions, revision of trade and security rules, reassessment of the role of global institutions and a gradual transition from the dominance of a narrow circle of powers to a more complex system of centers of power, increasing conflict, fragmentation and uncertainty. One of the most visible signs of the changing world order has been the strengthening of the role of the BRICS and the broader political self-assertion of the Global South. The other is the growth of geopolitical disagreements, trade restrictions and the changing structure of the global economy. As a result, the world is becoming not post—global, but otherwise globalized - more fragmented, more politicized, and more unstable.
On January 29, 2026, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres emphasized that multipolarity alone does not guarantee stability or peace. Without the formation of a new structure of the world order, multipolarity risks becoming a system of constant competition without stable rules. Thus, the new world order does not mean a rejection of globalization, but a change in its nature: it persists, but common international law, uniform rules and principles no longer apply in it. At the same time, serious risks and conflicts are increasing, as well as the likelihood of crises, including protracted ones. Therefore, the new world order may turn out to be less predictable and stable, and is likely to be not a single universal structure, but a complex and contradictory multi-level system in which regional and temporary associations will arise, situational deals will be concluded, and partnerships and alliances of states linked by interests in different areas will be created.
The publications and speeches of Russian politicians about the "new world order" do not say anything specific about what the "new world order" will be, what it can or should be. The intended or desirable characteristics of the "new world order", if they are mentioned at all, are done so extremely sparingly and in the most general form. Nothing is said about what it can and should bring to people, citizens of those countries that seem to be striving to create it. At best, it declares national or state interests. Thus, the concept of the "new world order" is extremely general and empty, i.e. abstract and indefinite.
This could be explained and justified by the fact that the process of transition to the "new world order" is still at the very beginning, there are many different political, economic and other factors, as well as social and political forces, on which its course, nature and probable intermediate and final results directly or indirectly depend. This is done in a number of statements and publications, but it does not remove the very fact and the very problem of the meaninglessness of the concept of the "new world order". Such political or, to use a widely used term, political science, and at the same time, of course, scientific (Marxist) concepts as capitalism, profit, the bourgeoisie, the proletariat, class struggle and class interest, or at least the people, the masses and the working people, are absent from them. But it is undoubtedly important what goals and by whom are set in the process of moving towards what has been called the "new world order", who makes decisions and in whose interests, who has real economic, political and any other power.
It is quite obvious that a single world economy is being formed, but the whole question is whether it will have the same capitalist character, where the main thing is to maximize profits at any cost, when welfare, health, and often people's lives are sacrificed to achieve this goal, or the main thing is the creation and improvement of all necessary conditions. for a full-fledged creative and happy human life, first of all a human being of work, a humane, and comprehensively developed person. And this is possible only under communism, when freedom, equality and fraternity of all people will become, from being a dream and an allegedly unattainable ideal, natural and inalienable features of human society, of all mankind.
There are prerequisites for moving along this path, for the transformation of global capitalism into world communism. The first and most important of them is the existence and steady development of a unified global economic system, which has now reached a stage where almost all countries are interdependent on each other and any failure in one place inevitably leads to costs and problems in another. Moreover, any local or regional war results in significant, if not huge, losses not only for those countries that are involved in it, but also for all other countries, albeit to varying degrees.
The second premise is that the development of the economy and human society as a whole is increasingly determined by the development of science and, accordingly, by a new type of producer, including an employee who, by necessity, has a higher education and is forced to constantly improve it, in particular, to engage in self-education.
The third of the main prerequisites, but far from being the last, is that information links are increasingly connecting ordinary people who can already communicate directly with each other and, if desired, gain knowledge about the life, customs and culture of other people, of all peoples on planet Earth.
Of course, these prerequisites, while important and essential, are not yet sufficient, and, of course, they also contain important and essential contradictions. It is enough to mention well-known facts that are not denied by any serious, even Western observers and researchers: the atomization of society, i.e. the increasing separation of people, their dehumanization, the dominance of the ideology of the capitalist "ruling elites", including the dominance of "mass culture", the continuing decline in the influence of traditional and new leftist parties on politics and citizens, and much more, especially the clear increase in the threat of fascism, primarily in the capitalist center – the United States and the European Union.
Nevertheless, based on the available prerequisites and a scientific, Marxist analysis of what is happening in the world, the process of the formation of a "new world order", not a little can and should be done, contributing to the formation of objective and subjective conditions for "turning the tables" on the difficult, but necessary and desirable path to communism. First of all, we need to understand for ourselves what the process of creating a "new world order" really is, what difficulties, trends and contradictions are inherent in it, what it can and should become, and this includes our understanding of the answer to the question "What to do?" to pass on peace, justice and confidence in the future to everyone who wants peace, justice and confidence in the future to themselves, children and grandchildren, i.e. to modern proletarians both in the narrow, so to speak, classical, and in the broad sense of the word. All of them, undoubtedly, need not a "new world order", but a world republic of Soviets!
The Soviet Union Association
June 27, 2026