Author: Alessandro Sansoni – 22/08/206
The “Old Order” Has Broken Down. It Is Time for New Strategies
Alessandro Sansoni
Yesterday marked the opening of the Rimini Meeting, the annual gathering organized by Comunione e Liberazione which, since 1980, has traditionally signaled the return of Italian political life after the summer recess. Today, Pope Leo XIV himself is expected to attend—a historic visit, considering that in forty-six years only one other Pontiff, Saint John Paul II, has visited the volunteers of Communion and Liberation.
It is easy to imagine that Pope Leo will use this opportunity to deliver a message of peace to Italy and to the wider world. The theme chosen by the organizers this year is particularly meaningful:“L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle” (“The Love That Moves the Sun and the Other Stars”), the celebrated verse with which Dante concludes the Divine Comedy.
Taken literally and measured against today’s international landscape, this verse is less a description of reality than an aspiration. It is an invitation to practice what might be called the optimism of the will in an age marked by turbulence and uncertainty. For Dante, “Love” was not merely an emotion but the spiritual force that drives the universe toward order—a dynamic rather than static order, one that seeks to reconcile competing and potentially conflicting elements, both in heaven and on earth.
There is undoubtedly a profound need for such an effort today. To undertake it, however, we must first recognize that the framework of rules and assumptions that governed international relations after the fall of the Berlin Wall has now definitively broken down.
What, then, should we expect after this brief yet intensely hot summer?
First and foremost, a world that is more uncertain—and therefore more dangerous. The war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, shows no sign of ending. The understandings that emerged between Washington and Moscow following the Anchorage summit a year ago can now be considered effectively defunct, at least with regard to the ongoing conflict. Meanwhile, the situation in the Middle East appears even more fragile. Israel seems prepared both to annex the West Bank and to resume military operations in Lebanon. At the same time, another of President Trump’s diplomatic initiatives concerning Gaza failed to gain traction and now appears destined to disappear altogether. Finally, the sixty-day truce between Iran and the United States has expired without any meaningful progress in negotiations on the many issues remaining on the table, beginning with the crisis surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, which has shaken one of the foundations of the international economic order: the free flow of maritime trade.
The Hormuz crisis itself demonstrates how rapidly the rules and conventions that shaped international relations until only a few years ago are losing relevance. Continued appeals to those principles increasingly sound disconnected from reality.
This shift is reflected in Washington’s recent threat to seize Iranian assets under U.S. jurisdiction in order to offset the costs incurred by the U.S. Navy in the Persian Gulf. The proposal forms part of a broader sanctions strategy designed to exert maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic. It echoes earlier discussions regarding the possible confiscation of Russian assets frozen in Europe after the invasion of Ukraine—a step many European governments have hesitated to take because of its potentially far-reaching implications for the credibility of the legal and financial framework that made Western markets the preferred destination for global capital.
The weaponization of finance, natural resources, and even geography represents one of the defining characteristics of what is commonly described as “hybrid warfare.” These dynamics are likely to affect everyday life even in countries not directly involved in armed conflicts. Rising living costs, economic instability, and disruptions to global trade could impose significant burdens on societies far removed from the front lines.
In truth, there is little that is genuinely new under the sun. The postwar order established after Yalta, followed by the era of globalization, caused many to forget the terrain on which states and peoples had competed for centuries—even when armies were not clashing on the battlefield. The truly novel dimension of today’s hybrid conflicts lies primarily in the cyber and digital domains opened up by technological innovation.
The central issue, therefore, is that there is no longer a single great power—or even a limited group of great powers—capable of enforcing and guaranteeing a global system of rules through its own coercive strength. Not even according to the logic of “double standards,” whereby international law is selectively applied in favor of a dominant power and its allies.
We find ourselves, in short, navigating the open and turbulent sea of power politics, where balances must be redefined—not only at the global level, but perhaps at the continental level as well.
And the “Amor” of which Dante spoke—that force striving to reconcile conflicts and create harmony—can no longer be expressed merely through appeals to international law or to the treaties that governed the world in recent decades. It must instead take shape through a new and ambitious strategic vision. Formulating that vision is now the responsibility of Italy’s and Europe’s leaders, who must act with realism and urgency if they hope to manage the instability of the present rather than be overwhelmed by it.
TThe original version of this article was published in “www.lecronache.info” on August, 22 2026 We thank the Author for allowing its translation and publication on the Vision & Global Trends website.