{"id":91038,"date":"2026-03-21T07:01:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=91038"},"modified":"2026-03-21T07:01:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T07:01:48","slug":"the-new-world-order-is-here-and-neoliberalism-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/03\/21\/the-new-world-order-is-here-and-neoliberalism-is-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"The new world order is here, and neoliberalism is dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The world order is changing. Military power no longer guarantees victory, economic warfare is replacing invasion, and identity politics is proving stronger than force. In this video, I explain why the old assumptions of geopolitics \u2014 that superpowers always win, that regime change can be imposed from outside, that missiles settle disputes \u2014 are collapsing before our eyes.<\/div>\n<p>Russia cannot defeat Ukraine despite its overwhelming military power. Iran is standing up to US foreign policy and outlasting the bombardment. Israel's regional dominance faces an uncertain future. These aren't isolated events \u2014 they represent a fundamental power shift in international relations. War is becoming an economic process, not a military one. Supply chains, resources, and economic resilience now determine who survives. Sanctions and trade are being weaponised by smaller states fighting back, not just by the aggressors who once controlled them.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, soft power in the West has collapsed. Neoliberalism is failing at home \u2014 inequality, instability, and domestic discontent in the USA, UK, France, and Germany mean nobody wants to import our political economy model any more. The credibility of Western diplomacy is in freefall. What replaces it? A politics of care, cooperation, and respect \u2014 or more chaos. That's the choice we face. This is geopolitics explained honestly, and it matters to every one of us.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/cr8VYDGuRsc?si=70ETzGFhkhJPZi-D\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is the audio version:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px); height: 150px;\" title=\"Military power is dead\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/player-v2\/?i=edinu-1a795af-pb&amp;from=pb6admin&amp;share=1&amp;download=1&amp;rtl=0&amp;fonts=Arial&amp;skin=f6f6f6&amp;font-color=auto&amp;logo_link=episode_page&amp;btn-skin=c73a3a\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is the transcript:<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p class=\"p1\">Political economy is shaped by power relationships. That is, in fact, what it studies, and those relationships are now shifting dramatically. The old assumptions that made the world work no longer hold true, but politicians are failing to recognise this change, and that\u2019s really worrying me. We are moving into a new era, but are our politicians, commentators, and those who are actually shaping policy in the military and elsewhere, understanding the new world we\u2019re entering?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In that new world, military strength no longer guarantees victory. Dominant nations cannot impose outcomes. Wars are increasingly unwinnable. Power is no longer what it was. So what now determines control?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Let\u2019s look at the facts. Russia is unable to beat Ukraine. It\u2019s lost massive numbers of lives and vast quantities of resources, and there is no decisive outcome to that war as yet. Military dominance has proved insufficient for it to be able to win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The limits on US military power are also becoming exposed at present. The US has been used to dumping missiles and other bombs onto places like Afghanistan, and Libya, and Syria, and now it\u2019s trying to do the same with Iran, where it has done this before, but it\u2019s becoming apparent that the technique is no longer working.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Iran is standing up to the assault. More than that, it\u2019s actually exposing the weakness in the USA. Iran could outlast the supply of missiles being aimed at it. If it does, the balance of power will shift heavily in Iran\u2019s favour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The US assumes that a short war will always work for it. That is no longer true. What we also do know is that these wars have never truly worked. They\u2019ve never delivered real regime change. They\u2019ve only created short-term vacuums of power, and the outcomes have often been deeply unfavourable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There\u2019s another process that\u2019s going on at the same time, and that is that Israel is facing the end of its own military certainty. I could remember the Six-Day War in 1967. Israel won. Israel has won every war it\u2019s been engaged with since then, and now it\u2019s suddenly in a different position. Iran is also exposing Israel. If the USA can\u2019t back Israel\u2019s assault on Iran with the firepower that is needed to create a victory, Israel is going to suddenly find itself in a totally new political economic situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Its assumption of regional dominance might now be challenged. Its military superiority may no longer be decisive. Its strategic limits of power may become increasingly visible, and all of this is happening at the same time as something else is going on.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">War is shifting from being a military process to being an economic process. What is becoming very clear in the fight with Iran is that supply chains and resources are now critical to the victory that Iran is seeking. Sanctions and finance as weapons have been used in the past, but they were used by the aggressor against the smaller state. Now the smaller state is finding it can use them and fight back.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The cost of war is now constraining outcomes, and we\u2019re seeing this happening in Ukraine, by the way. They have become absolute masters of creating cheap armaments. That is what is holding Russia at bay. In the case of Iran, of course, it is oil, but in either case, economic resilience is determining survival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Smaller states are, then, refusing to submit to the power that is being thrown at them now, and this is a major change in world thinking. The idea that we have superpowers and they will always determine outcomes has been something that I\u2019ve lived with all my life, but it\u2019s no longer true.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Resistance is being rooted in culture and belief, and we\u2019re seeing that in Ukraine. People believe in the country.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In Iran, people believe in the faith.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">People are no longer willing to accept the threat of occupation being imposed upon them, when that might mean a regime change with regard to the culture of the country. Identity is therefore proving to be stronger than force in these cases, and this is really important.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Iran proves this. Internal dissent does exist, but external imposition of change is being rejected. There is no appetite in Iran for US-imposed regime change. They\u2019ve seen what has happened elsewhere. They don\u2019t trust Western intentions. Why should they? Legitimacy cannot be imported into a country, and anyway, Western models of neoliberal politics are failing globally. There\u2019s massive domestic discontent with them in both the USA and the UK right now, and France and Germany. Everywhere, right-wing and authoritarian politics are rising, and people are seeing this as some sort of indication that what they\u2019ve got may be what they\u2019ll get, and as a consequence, they\u2019re no longer persuaded by the idea that the USA coming in with its missiles is also coming in as a saviour. It isn\u2019t. Neoliberalism is dead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The consequence is that military bombardment is losing its effectiveness. Economic warfare is gaining an importance, and identity politics are becoming decisive, and we are failing to take that into account. Legitimacy is replacing coercion. Power is now more complex and diffuse as a result. Internal failures are undermining the external influence of Western countries, and inequality and instability in the West is being seen visibly around the world. The credibility of our model of government is collapsing, and others are therefore unwilling to replicate it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Soft power has also been severely weakened in the West. Look at the UK. We\u2019ve undermined the funding of the BBC\u2019s World Service. It\u2019s hardly surprising that people aren\u2019t noticing what we have to say anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There is now no global dominant economic or political model is the point I\u2019m making. This is important because multiple competing forces are now very clearly at play in international political economy, and it\u2019s becoming impossible to predict outcomes. High levels of geopolitical instability and genuine uncertainty are now unavoidable when we look at what is happening in the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">What is going to happen? Well, I don\u2019t know. Nobody does. Let\u2019s be clear about this. We can only guess, but my feeling is that there\u2019s going to be a major shift towards soft power strategies now. Influence will come through culture and economics. Nonviolent tools are going to become central to what is going on in the world. Warfare is going to be downscaled. I\u2019m not going to complain about that. Whilst diplomacy will regain importance, new forms of conflict are emerging, and so will new forms of conflict resolution as a result.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sanctions, trade and finance tools are going to be a part of this agenda, and the control of resources is obviously going to become strategic, and there will be winners and losers as a result, and they may be far away from the point of the original conflict. That\u2019s also important to remember.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Currency and payment systems are going be weaponised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Economic pressure is going to replace invasion, but limits will still apply.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I come back to the point, ideology is now central to conflict, and one of the things that we\u2019ve got to accept is that there are now genuine ideological differences, and we are not going to resolve them through conflict. There is no way now that imposed belief systems are going to work in regimes which are imposed upon countries. National and cultural identity will prevent that, and in fact, they will be strengthened by any attempts to undermine them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Polarisation has driven conflict dynamics to date. Of course it has. The idea that someone is an enemy is what has made it possible to go forward and kill them. That is how we overcome our reservations about doing that. But the point is that things are going to be different in the future. If we\u2019re going to respect difference, and we\u2019re going to have to, because countries are not going to accept our points of view automatically just because it\u2019s been imposed with a gun, we\u2019re going to have to be talking about a politics of care. We\u2019re going to have to reject dehumanisation of opponents. We\u2019re going to have to move beyond \u201cenemy\u201d narratives. We\u2019re going to have to emphasise cooperation and respect, and we\u2019re going to have to reduce the drivers of conflict.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">My point is this: neoliberalism has been exposed in its harshest form. War is revealing the failures of it as a current system of management, of government, of societies, and of the world. Power structures are therefore going to undergo transformation. Change is now inevitable. Old models cannot survive. No one knows what the answers are as yet. Me included. But what I am saying is we now need to address these issues, and that is the next stage of the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Recognising the scale of the change underway now is vital. We need to question assumptions about war and power, and we need to engage with new political possibilities. We need to demand a politics based on care.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If you agree, please comment down below. Please share this video and subscribe to our channel. Let us know what you think. It\u2019s really important. It shapes how we create future videos.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Poll<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"polls-349\" class=\"wp-polls\">\n\t<form id=\"polls_form_349\" class=\"wp-polls-form\" action=\"\/Blog\/index.php\" method=\"post\">\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" id=\"poll_349_nonce\" name=\"wp-polls-nonce\" value=\"2c03c397c7\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"display: none;\"><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"poll_id\" value=\"349\" \/><\/p>\n\t\t<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>What now defines power in today\u2019s world?<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"polls-349-ans\" class=\"wp-polls-ans\"><ul class=\"wp-polls-ul\">\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1549\" name=\"poll_349\" value=\"1549\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1549\">Military strength still decides outcomes<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1550\" name=\"poll_349\" value=\"1550\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1550\">Economic power &amp; control of resources<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1551\" name=\"poll_349\" value=\"1551\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1551\">Culture, identity &amp; belief systems<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<li><input type=\"radio\" id=\"poll-answer-1552\" name=\"poll_349\" value=\"1552\" \/> <label for=\"poll-answer-1552\">No single power \u2014 it\u2019s now unpredictable<\/label><\/li>\n\t\t<\/ul><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><input type=\"button\" name=\"vote\" value=\"   Vote   \" class=\"Buttons\" onclick=\"poll_vote(349);\" \/><\/p><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#ViewPollResults\" onclick=\"poll_result(349); return false;\" title=\"View Results Of This Poll\">View Results<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"polls-349-loading\" class=\"wp-polls-loading\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-polls\/images\/loading.gif\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"Loading ...\" title=\"Loading ...\" class=\"wp-polls-image\" \/>&nbsp;Loading ...<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world order is changing. Military power no longer guarantees victory, economic warfare is replacing invasion, and identity politics is proving stronger than force. In<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/03\/21\/the-new-world-order-is-here-and-neoliberalism-is-dead\/\"><em> Read the full article&#8230;<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,224,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-neoliberalism","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91066,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91038\/revisions\/91066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}