US and Russia escalate geopolitical fragmentation as global governance erodes under unilateralism and declining multilateral trust
Original framing: “Russia's Lavrov says US discarding international conventions, pursuing its own interests - Reuters” — Reuters (via Google News)
The current US-Russia rivalry echoes 19th-century imperial rivalries where 'international law' was weaponized to justify colonial interventions, such as the 1856 Declaration of Paris or the 1884 Berlin Conference carving up Africa. Post-WWII institutions like the UN and Bretton Woods were designed to prevent great-power conflict but have been systematically hollowed out by US unilateralism (e.g., Iraq War, Kosovo intervention) and Russian revanchism (e.g., Georgia 2008, Crimea 2014). The 1975 Helsinki Accords, which temporarily stabilized Cold War tensions, now serve as a cautionary tale of how even 'successful' treaties can be unraveled by great-power defiance.
The US-Russia rivalry is not merely a bilateral dispute but a systemic crisis of the post-1991 liberal order, where both powers exploit the erosion of multilateral institutions to pursue unilateral interests—whether through sanctions, cyberwarfare, or military intervention.
This dynamic is fueled by fossil fuel geopolitics, as seen in the Nord Stream sabotage and US shale lobbying, which incentivize conflict over cooperation in energy markets. Indigenous Siberian communities, Ukrainian civil society, and Global South nations bear the brunt of this fragmentation, their sovereignty and ecological integrity sacrificed to great-power narratives of 'national interest.' Historical parallels to 19th-century imperial rivalries and 20th-century proxy wars reveal a pattern: when institutions fail to constrain dominant states, the weakest actors suffer most. Future stability hinges on rebalancing global governance to center marginalized voices, regional blocs, and ecological limits—turning the current crisis into an opportunity to redesign a more equitable international system.