For nearly eight decades, US global leadership rested on military supremacy, economic centrality, and alliance cohesion. The first two remain substantial; the third is eroding.

What the world of today is witnessing is a fractured west, a shifting order, the waning of singular hegemony, an unprecedented and rapid transition from uncontested primacy to competitive multi-polarity, and the uncertain future of the United Nations.

At the recent Munich gathering, a striking admission cut through diplomatic caution. Germany’s chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that the post-1945 settlement “no longer exists.” France’s president Emmanuel Macron urged Europe to become a geopolitical power in its own right. Even America’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, conceded that “the old world is gone.”

The same voice had been echoed by Canada and the UK. Both are shifting from old world order and are carving an independent geopolitical and economic road map tailored to their needs.

These are not routine diplomatic flourishes. They reflect a deeper fracture within the Western alliance anchored for decades by the United States and institutionalised through structures like NATO and the United Nations.

The consequences of this shift extend beyond transatlantic tensions. They reach the future of American hegemony, Europe’s Middle East policy, China’s ascent, Russia’s manoeuvring space — and, critically, the fate of the United Nations itself.

In such an environment, even close allies calculate interests with greater autonomy.

On Gaza and Palestine, most European capitals have maintained support for a........

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