Lately globalism is beginning to wobble. The feud between the West and Russia continues over the issue of Ukraine and no settlement is in sight. Bitter civil war and failure of governance persist in the Islamic world, where the Arab Spring pro-democracy movement has failed and the Islamic State is in a situation close to lawlessness. Civil war is also rampant in Africa. The threat of terrorism is expanding while some countries aim to develop nuclear arms and expand military strength.

As for the background of these developments, it can be pointed out that the leadership of the United States as the linchpin of the world order has declined, causing multi-polarization and making it more difficult to keep order. In fact, the U.N. Security Council has become unable to take effective measures to settle disputes due to a clash of views among its permanent members.

The role for maintaining world economic order has shifted from the Group of Eight to the Group of 20, but the expansion of member countries has made it difficult to achieve agreement on effective policy measures despite many meetings being held. Appropriate public control is essential to ensure the smooth operations of markets but, as seen in the latest euro crisis, many governments tend to be influenced so much by moves in markets that they often adopt populist policies. Consequently, excessive liquidity has been injected into their economies, raising the risk of market speculation. In addition, technological innovations tend to remain stagnant.