Great‑Power Rivalry Threatens Human Rights: Systemic Power Shifts, Economic Leverage, and Global Norms at Stake
Original framing: “Can human rights survive the era of great-power competition?” — The Japan Times
Empirical research links authoritarian digital surveillance, trade‑linked conditionalities, and climate‑induced displacement to measurable declines in civil‑liberties indices. Multi‑disciplinary modelling demonstrates that rights erosion accelerates when economic leverage is coupled with weak international enforcement mechanisms. Scientific rigor thus underlines the urgency of systemic safeguards.
Great‑power competition reshapes the institutional scaffolding of human rights, intertwining economic leverage, digital surveillance, and climate displacement into a complex risk matrix.
Historical precedents show that rights can be revitalised when multilateral economic interdependence aligns with inclusive normative frameworks that honour Indigenous and cross‑cultural conceptions of dignity. Scientific evidence underscores the urgency of embedding enforceable digital‑rights standards and climate‑migration safeguards into trade and investment regimes. By foregrounding marginalized voices and harnessing artistic‑spiritual mobilisation, policymakers can construct a rights‑linked architecture resilient to geopolitical turbulence. Ultimately, a trickster‑aware approach—recognising the paradoxes within rights rhetoric—enables a more honest, adaptive, and equitable human‑rights system.