Concept

In 1992, Bertrand Badie and Marie-Claude Smouts published Le retournement du monde (The Reversal of the World), a key work in which they analyze the profound transformations of the international system following the geopolitical earthquake created by the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, describing it as one of the most unstable political systems, characterized by an infinite number of constantly evolving units.

However, this reversal occurred without questioning the foundations of the international system established at the end of the Second World War, which had been identified and celebrated as largely responsible for the outcome of this ideological conflict between great powers.

Yet, after more than thirty additional years of instability and constant evolution, we are now witnessing what could be described as a major geopolitical upheaval, or a “great reversal,” since the liberal international order is currently being challenged not only by dissenting states, but also from within by the acceleration of illiberal trends.