IRC chief says world is witnessing 'global disorder' amid escalating conflicts and lack of accountability

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The world is going through a “time of more shocks and fewer shock absorbers” as conflicts escalate and warring parties dismiss the rules that uphold global order, David Miliband…

The world is going through a “time of more shocks and fewer shock absorbers” as conflicts escalate and warring parties dismiss the rules that uphold global order, David Miliband has warned.

Speaking to The National’s Editor-in-Chief Mina Al-Oraibi in an interview in Abu Dhabi, the president of the International Rescue Committee and former UK foreign secretary said a “lack of accountability” was helping to fuel a “time of global disorder”.

“Sixty-five conflicts going on around the world at the moment, 65. That's extraordinary,” said Mr Miliband.

“This world, which has more resources to do more good than at any time in human history, is a world that is repeating some of the worst of the old lessons,” he added.

Mr Miliband said some of the most powerful countries were setting a precedent for turmoil by disregarding rules established after the Second World War to uphold global order.

“I think that the biggest rug that's been pulled from the global system is that the most basic rules that were written after 1945 about the territorial integrity of states, about the sanctity of individual life, they're not obeyed.

“And they're not being obeyed from the top of the system by the most powerful countries. And that is an invitation for copycat behaviour,” he said.

The postwar framework he was referring to includes the 1945 UN Charter, which prohibits the threat or use of force against another country’s territorial integrity or political independence, and the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which set out protections for civilians and others in wartime.

“Those rules that were established after 1945 weren't western rules. They were global rules. And they protected everyone, not just someone. And the fact that parts of the western world are not defending them, but the other parts of the world are also not seeing the danger of repeating history's mistakes, that's my biggest concern,” said Mr Miliband. “We've got to re-establish the foundations of global order.”

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