German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned Monday that the international rules-based order is facing unprecedented strain, urging renewed global commitment to cooperation and stronger UN reform. Speaking at the opening of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference, Steinmeier said the world is entering a period in which long-standing international norms are increasingly under threat.
Steinmeier Criticizes Raw Power Politics
"We live in a time when the international rules that have guided us for decades are under threat, when some powerful states no longer recognize these rules and brazenly break them when they stand in the way of their own power interests," he said, according to the Suddeutsche Zeitung daily. He noted that global politics is increasingly shaped by "raw power politics, zero-sum thinking, and confrontation," replacing the foundations of a cooperative international system.
"A spirit of brutality and ruthlessness is blowing through international politics," Steinmeier added, highlighting the growing disregard for multilateral norms.
Call for UN Reform
Despite these developments, Steinmeier stressed that abandoning multilateral cooperation would be the wrong course. "A withdrawal from the United Nations would be short-sighted and fatal. Nevertheless, the UN must change, must become more efficient and effective, must prove that it can deliver better results than the strongmen with their fantasies of omnipotence," he said, emphasizing the need for institutional reform to address modern challenges.
