Far right Oathkeeper militia members (in camouflage uniforms) confronted by demonstrators protesting the lack of criminal charges in the police killing of black American woman Breonna Taylor in Kentucky last week. A ‘global crisis of loneliness’ is ‘fuelling divisiveness and extremism’ in many countries, says Hertz. — AFP
THERE is little doubt that the present era is among the most unsettled moments in contemporary history. The 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly is currently being held at a time of deep divisions in the world even as it seeks to reaffirm the collective commitment to multilateralism, now under unprecedented stress. This is being challenged by big and regional powers trying to rewrite the rules of the game by unilateral actions, which is eroding even the semblance of a rules-based international order. This urged UN Secretary General António Guterres to recently reiterate that multilateralism is needed more than ever to “repair broken trust in a broken world”.
Many paradoxes characterise the global landscape today. The world is more interconnected than ever before and yet so atomised. International solidarity has never been more needed to deal with common challenges but unity remains elusive. The Covid-19 crisis has thrown these paradoxes into sharper relief.
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