ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses international order within the literature of critical geopolitics. It considers the prevailing international order in the post-1945 era, including the creation of the United Nations and some of the ways international law attempts to address equality and justice. The chapter outlines consideration of some of the contemporary challenges to international order, which embrace inter alia trans-national terror networks, anti-globalization and climate change. It suggests that the international order created after 1945 is far from being liberal/Liberal. International order matters because it signifies not only the operational basis of the prevailing global political system but also an opportunity to consider how the ‘order of things’ might be changed. The United Nations stood accused of being useless and great powers were labelled indifferent and cowardly in their reluctance to intervene to relieve human suffering. The role of powerful states such as the United States in the post-1945 era has been instrumental in securing a particular type of international order.
