Podcast Summary: Competing Visions for International Order

Podcast: New Books Network (Nordic Asia Podcast)
Host: Julie Yu Wen Chen
Episode Date: February 13, 2026
Featured Guests: Vila Sinkonen, Matti (Matti Puranen), Bar Genz

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the core concepts of the new book Competing Visions for International Order: Challenges for Shared Direction in an Age of Global Contestation. Host Julie Yu Wen Chen and three of the book’s contributors—Vila Sinkonen, Matti, and Bar Genz—discuss the book’s ambition and findings. The conversation focuses on the competing visions of three major international actors: China, India, and the United States, exploring how each conceptualizes the future of the global order in a period marked by power shifts, ideological contestation, and institutional uncertainty.

Book’s Ambition & Analytical Framework

Key Discussion (02:33–07:27)

Project Vision & Structure

• The book comprises 16 chapters: an introduction, a conclusion, and 14 case studies covering both “superpower contenders” (US and China), “status quo powers” (e.g., EU, France, Germany, UK, Japan), and “post-Westernizers/revisionists” (India, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia).
• Motivation: The current global moment is viewed as a time of “rupture,” with power dynamics, existential challenges (climate, energy, food, pandemics), wars, conflicts, and ideological splits both within and between states.
• The editors set out to analyze how different key powers think about international order, asking: What are the distributional, normative, institutional, and temporal characteristics of each state’s vision for the future?
  • Quote (Vila Sinkonen, 05:35):
    “We can think about how far apart or how closely [these visions] correspond with each other, which should also tell us something about the potential of finding a shared future understanding of international order if we are indeed at a point in time when the old order is, if not collapsing, then at least slowly whittling away.”

The Four Dimensions of International Order (05:10)

• Distributional: Military, economic, technological power arrangements.
• Normative: Shared norms, rules, values, and practices.
• Institutional: Accepted institutional frameworks for order.
• Temporal: Both forward-looking and historically-rooted conceptions.

China's Vision: "Community of Shared Future"

Key Discussion (07:42–14:02)

Main Attributes of China’s Vision

• Macro Vision:
  • “Community of Shared Future for Mankind” is the strategic concept advanced by China, featured in official discourse since roughly 2013.
• Distributional Dimension:
  • Envisions a multipolar world with “no hegemonic great powers,” where all states stand as equals.
• Institutional Arrangement:
  • Favors existing institutions (UN, WHO, IMF, WTO) but supplemented by Chinese-led initiatives (Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS).
• Normative Framework:
  • Emphasizes non-interference and the right of states to determine their own political and development paths, rooted in cultural distinctiveness.
  • Explicit rejection of “hegemonic ideologies or values.”
• Temporal Goal:
  • Tied to China’s national goal of “great rejuvenation” by 2049.

Security Vision and Contradictions

• Global Security Initiative (GSI):
  • Security strategy relying on six commitments, including respect for sovereignty and “indivisible security.”
• Contradiction Highlighted:
  • Commitment to state sovereignty clashes with the notion of “legitimate security concerns,” allowing great powers to justify actions (e.g., Russian invocation re: NATO and Ukraine).
  • Quote (Vila Sinkonen, 12:18): “There’s a major contradiction…between the commitment to sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and the so-called legitimate security concerns, which basically mean at least great powers can override the sovereignty of other states…”

India’s World Ordering Vision

Key Discussion (14:29–21:42)

India’s Strategic Perspective

• Paradigm Shift:
  • India perceives a global move toward multipolarity and greater uncertainty.
• Aspirations:
  • Sees itself as ready to claim its “rightful place as a rising power.”
  • Quote (Bar Genz, 15:12):
    “India feels like it has the confidence and...the ambition to claim what it sees as being its rightful place as a rising power.”

Four Key Concepts

1. Multi-Alignment:
   • India rejects non-alignment for “multi-alignment”—actively engaging all major powers despite competition.
   • Seeks to “avoid to have to choose between the US, China, and Russia.”
2. Civilizational State:
   • Increasing emphasis on India’s unique civilizational identity (Hindutva, use of ‘Bharat’), underpinning domestic and foreign policy.
3. Forum Shopping (Multi-Engagement):
   • Engages in diverse, sometimes contradictory international groupings (BRICS, Quad, Shanghai Cooperation Organization) for flexibility and maximizing influence.
   • “Not so much about ideological alignment...it’s all about strategic autonomy.”
4. Future Focus (Vixit Bharat 2047):
   • Ambitious vision for a “Developed India” by 2047, syntheses economic growth, social development, tech innovation, & civilizational pride.
   • India aims to “shape the rules” of the international system, not just adapt.

Rationale and Capabilities

• Demographics (now the most populous country), youthful workforce, robust economic growth, growing diplomatic and military stature.
• Firm aspiration to become a permanent UN Security Council member.

United States: Vision in Flux

Key Discussion (22:15–27:44)

Evolution of US International Order Vision

• Post-Cold War Era:
  • Vision centered on US-led liberal international order—military presence, economic openness, alliances, promotion of liberal-democratic values.
• Recent Decade:
  • Increasingly challenged by economic dislocation, political polarization, “forever wars,” and, most of all, the rise of China.
  • Quote (Matti, 22:45):
    “What my chapter is about is a story of a lost vision—the story of how a declining superpower is struggling to find a vision for the world that would inform then its own engagement with that world.”

Current Contestation

• No acceptance of multipolarity (“unlike...India”), but growing focus on “great power competition.”
• Internal division among foreign policy elites and between US administrations:
  • Biden: Framed as competition between liberal and authoritarian models; some support for multilateralism, but less than before.
  • Trump: Focus on sovereignty, patriotism, civilization; far less interest in democracy/human rights promotion or robust multilateralism.
  • Institutions: Less attachment to “large scale” multilateral bodies, shift to “issue-based coalitions.”
  • On time: Democratic administrations emphasize urgency to retain leadership; Republican (Trump) rhetoric aims to “go back to some kind of a golden age for America.”
• Result:
  • The US’s vision is unsettled; consensus fractured and in transition—with “great power competition” the only clear focal point.
    • Quote (Matti, 27:13):
      “The US vision is in flux. There is no...shared understanding of where the international order should be going and how the United States should conduct itself…”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Vila Sinkonen on Contradictions in Chinese Security Vision (12:18):
  “There’s a major contradiction...between the commitment to sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries and the so-called legitimate security concerns...which basically mean at least great powers can override the sovereignty of other states...”

• Bar Genz on India’s Confidence (15:12):
  “India feels like it has the confidence and certainly also the ambition to claim what it sees as being its rightful place as a rising power.”

• Matti on the Decline of US Vision (22:45):
  “What my chapter is about is a story of a lost vision—the story of how a declining superpower is struggling to find a vision for the world that would inform then its own engagement with that world.”

• Julie Yu Wen Chen's Summary (27:44):
  “We can see the Chinese and the Indian vision are more forward looking while the United States one seems to being shaped all the time and we need wisdom to avoid really a tragic race to the bottom.”

Key Segment Timestamps

• [02:33] – Book’s ambitions & analytical framework (Vila Sinkonen)
• [07:42] – China’s community of shared future (Vila Sinkonen)
• [14:29] – India’s multipolar, civilizational, future-oriented model (Bar Genz)
• [22:15] – US vision: From liberal order to a vision in flux (Matti)
• [27:44] – Host’s closing summary

Takeaways

• China articulates a multipolar, sovereignty-centered, but internally contradictory vision of world order.
• India champions multi-alignment, civilizational identity, and forum-shopping to maximize autonomy and shape new global rules.
• The US is struggling to adapt, with its traditional vision eroding, internal polarizations rising, and an unclear new direction.
• The episode provides a rich, comparative insight into how competing visions could shape or destabilize the quest for a future international order, with particular attention to the need for wisdom and dialogue in managing these differences.