International Solution
International Levers
What scholars, writers and speakers argue about the levels of power and the means each one holds it by — from videos, articles, books, talks and our own answers — each summarised in its own words and filed by subject.
The structure of power
A divided top tier rules through industry, dollar, veto and bomb while challengers contest it
No single power rules the world. A divided top tier sits above middle powers, weak states and peoples: five veto-holders, nine nuclear-armed states and the dollar-centred creditor system. Industrial capacity and money come first because they pay for military reach and institutional gatekeeping. Institutions bind only as far as the strongest allow, and public opinion multiplies material power rather than replacing it. China's manufacturing and a Russia-China-led BRICS contest this order but have not yet replaced the dollar or the veto. Lower down, the gun decides who holds a state when armies split, and outside patrons and resource money decide which regimes and armed groups survive.
Key points
- Divided top tier. The five veto-holders are the only tier that exists in law, yet they veto as rivals, and nine nuclear-armed states are entrenching their military edge.
- Levers in order. Industrial capacity ranks first, then money and markets, military reach, institutional gatekeeping and state capital, with soft power last as a multiplier.
- Dollar still anchors. Deep, legally trusted US capital markets have no near-term substitute, and BRICS settles most internal trade in national currencies but lacks a working payment alternative.
- Where it is shifting. US unpredictability, tariffs and unpaid UN dues are wearing down Western primacy, while China avoids the costs of leadership and the Middle East fragments with no enforcer.
- Force beneath the state. Where armies split, the gun decides who rules and elections later legitimise it, and paramilitaries survive only with foreign patrons and resource money.
- Weaker states' route. Weaker states gain room by building industry, trusted law and regional payment links, while Gulf states hedge through thin pacts rather than rely on Washington.
- What follows for Muslims. For Muslims facing captured institutions, nusrah (protective backing) favours founding new authority over lobbying, though Sudan shows armies that install rulers can also remove them.
Global
Wealth & Economics
Politics & Governance
Great Power Geopolitics
- Politics & GovernanceGreat Power GeopoliticsExplain the middle east balance of powerIran's weakened proxy network and exposed limits on US guarantees have pushed Gulf states into new but thin alliances, while Saudi-UAE rivalry keeps the region divided.
- Politics & GovernanceGreat Power GeopoliticsWho or which institutions controls the world?A Justice Council analysis finds no single power runs the world: dominance is split between the UN Security Council veto, the dollar-based financial system, and nine nuclear-armed states, all facing Global South pressure.
- Great Power GeopoliticsPresenter's Reading on World Order and PowerThe presenter recommends ten books to explain today's turmoil, pairing each with the historical or economic lesson it offers, from Kissinger's clashing world orders to Solzhenitsyn's warning on unchecked state power.
More
- Build new institutions where the old are compromised; army-backed takeovers have workedThe Justice Council argues that where institutions are captured by the powers they're meant to check, Muslims should found new authority rather than lobby them — citing the Seerah's nusrah model and army-backed takeovers in Syria and Sudan.
- Chinese Views on BRICS and the Future World OrderChinese-aligned commentary casts BRICS and the Russia-China partnership as building a rules-reforming, multipolar order — framed as diversification and governance reform, not a bloc against the West.
- Russian Views on BRICS and the Future World OrderRussian officials and analysts present BRICS and the SCO as pillars of a multipolar, Eurasia-centred order, tie the Ukraine war to a century-long Western crisis and Russia's "World Majority" pivot, and frame it as driving a Russian cultural and spiritual renewal.
- Politics & GovernanceWhat are the levers of global power in order?Industrial capacity, money and military reach outrank institutions as levers of global power; soft power, media and public opinion rank lowest, multiplying rather than replacing the material levers above them.