The international order is dead, and the West killed it

The international order meant to limit the effects of war on vulnerable groups is falling apart. 100,000 civilians died in 2024 and 2025 as a result. And the problem isn’t going away anytime soon.

The Geneva Academy’s new report laid out how international humanitarian law (IHL) was at breaking point around the world. The War Watch: IHL in focus study warned:

The years 2024 and 2025 proved devastating to civilians, with little evidence of willingness among warring parties to limit the barbarity inflicted upon the most vulnerable.

In many cases:

serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL)were wrought against those whom the law was supposed to protect on a huge scale and with rampant impunity.

And the report said:

Murder, torture, and rape were widespread; civilians and their homes, schools, and hospitals were bombed regularly and sometimes systematically.

The report acknowledges genocide in Gaza and Sudan as being among the most egregious cases today. But many other countries are also affected.

International order breakdown: neither inevitable nor unavoidable

The report describes widespread attacks on hospitals, medical workers, and journalists. There is widespread sexual violence in many conflict areas. Disabled people are particularly vulnerable in warzones, and at the same time warzones create more disabled people – often in mind-boggling numbers. In Ukraine, for example:

at least 50,000 Ukrainians – soldiers and civilians had lost limbs – since the February 2022 invasion. That estimate had doubled by the end of 2025.

Impunity is widespread. The academy said dealing with it should be “treated as a policy priority”. However:

Persistent under-resourcing, alongside political measures that constrain or undermine judicial independence, risks weakening the enforcement of IHL and eroding its deterrent effect.

Rhetorical commitments

The report warned that many governments did not match action with rhetoric. This includes arms sales:

International law prohibits States from assisting any actor, State or non-State, in carrying out attacks
against civilians.

The authors warned political considerations often overrode legal obligations:

While the UN Arms Trade Treaty has been ratified by a large number of States, its obligations are too often sidelined in favour of political considerations. This must change. The continued export of arms to Israel, Russia, and others has contributed directly to violations on the ground.

This seems especially relevant given US and Israeli attacks on organisations like the United Nations (UN) and International Criminal Court (ICC). And the Trump administration’s recent decision to pull out of dozens of international bodies covering everything from climate change to counter-terrorism.

The authors said:

What is described and summarized in this report is neither inevitable nor unavoidable. It is a choice we make as a species to murder, torture, rape, and abuse our own.

Either the situation is arrested and enforcement and accountability are guaranteed or further damage will be done to IHL:

This report is a record of both what has, and has not, been done in armed conflicts around
the world. It is a grim, grisly snapshot of our inhumanity. No one in a position of authority, though, can say they did not know.

In recent weeks we saw an admission from Canada’s PM Mark Carney that the so-called global order was dying. He wasn’t wrong, even if he didn’t go far enough. Now legal experts are saying the legal system meant to limit war is coming apart too. And, it’s happening entirely by the choice of many powerful Western states.

Featured image via the Canary