One year after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, it remains difficult to predict the final outcome of the armed conflict. A protracted war looks probable, if not inevitable.
It has become an established fact, however, that the post-World War II (WWII) international system is under the heaviest pressure since the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s. A new arms race has emerged in many parts of the world, triggered largely by the Ukraine crisis. Trust between major countries is waning, multilateralism is under attack, and unilateralism is rampant. The once-in-a-century pandemic, the Ukraine crisis, the unparalleled sanctions on Russia, the spiraling inflation and a looming recession all overlap one another and have sounded the alarm in the boiler room of the international system.
