When justifying vast increases in defence expenditure, subsidies for so-called critical industries, foreign aid as an increasingly important element in the securitisation of foreign policy, governments and conservative think tanks never tire of telling the public that they live in the most dangerous of times.

It is arguable that the times are any more dangerous than when the world lived under the shadow of thermal nuclear war, where the Cuban missile crisis was once the most combustible flash point between the superpowers, or when Australian troops were dying and being wounded daily in Vietnam in a futile and immoral attempt to defend the US empire in Asia.

What is without doubt, however, is that we are living in one of the most interesting times in world history since the end of the second world war. Then a new world order was created under US leadership, supported by a raft of newly minted international institutions.

That order is now being eclipsed by a new multipolar order at probably a greater rate than anyone could have imagined a decade ago. Two events this week highlight that change.

The BRICS Summit hosted by Vladimir Putin opened this week in the Russian city of Kazan. The choice of Kazan is highly symbolic. It is bullseye in the heart of Eurasia from where the new global order is emerging.

After having substantially expanded it membership at last year’s meeting in South Africa, Putin’s summit will be attended by the largest number of heads of state to attend a........

© Pearls and Irritations