Competing Visions for International Order Challenges for a Shared Direction in an Age of Global Contestation

1. Introduction: Envisioning International Order in an Age of Global Contestation

Ville Sinkkonen, Veera Laine, and Matti Puranen

Part 1: The Superpower Contenders

2. The United States and Lost Visions of International Order in a World of Great-Power Competition

Ville Sinkkonen

3. Chinese Vision for a Durable Security Order in an Era of Great Power Competition: The Global Security Initiative

Matti Puranen and Julie Yu-Wen Chen

Part 2: Status Quo Powers

4. The European Union’s Evolving Vision for the International Order: From Liberal Beacon to Competitive Pole

Niklas Helwig, Marco Siddi, and Ville Sinkkonen 

5. France’s Ordering Visions: Independence, History, and Countering the Logic of Blocs 

Garret Martin

6. Germany’s Vision for International Order in the Era of Zeitenwende: No More Kantian Dreams?

Antti Seppo 

7. The United Kingdom’s Post-Brexit Ordering Vision

Juha Jokela

8. The Japanese Vision of World Order

Pekka Korhonen 

Part 3: Revisionists and Post-Westernisers

9. India as a Pivotal State Shaping a Post-Western World: From Periphery to Centre

Bart Gaens 

10. Brazilian Competing Ordering Visions: Destined to Become a Great Power?

Nuppu Pelevina

11. South Africa’s Vision of “A Better Africa and World”

Liisa Laakso and Iina Soiri

12. The Ordering Vision of Turkey’s AKP Regime: A Regional Centre State?

Toni Alaranta

13. Saudi Arabia’s Balancing Act in the Shifting Sands of the Middle East

Olli Ruohomäki

14. A Critical View of Iran’s Vision to Global Order

Majid Imani and Zahra Edalati

15. Russia’s Vision of a Multipolar World and the Sovereign “State-Civilisation”

Mikhail Komin and Veera Laine

16. Conclusions: Comparing Visions, Fathoming Orders

Veera Laine, Matti Puranen and Ville Sinkkonen

Biography

Ville Sinkkonen is a leading researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Finland.

Veera Laine is a senior researcher at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.

Matti Puranen is an associate professor at the Finnish National Defence University, Finland.

“In this impressive collection of first-rate scholarship, authors and editors jointly demonstrate that ordering visions are an absolute necessity for an international order, but such visions vary across the time and space. As the transformation of the world politics is in full swing, knowing how actors foresee international order is essential. Sinkkonen, Laine and Puranen edited a fine collection which offers many crucial insights.”

Michal Onderco, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands

“The overview of great power world visions offered by this brilliant and timely volume represents a much more stimulating and nuanced take on the current predicaments of global ordering than those proposed by, for example, studies of “strategic culture”. All the chapters of the book are of superb quality, and they meticulously apply a common analytical framework, creating a sense of coherence comparable to a monograph. Indeed, all serious students of world politics should reserve a spot for this volume in their bookshelves, be those real or virtual.”

Henri Vogt, University of Turku, Finland

"At a moment of profound transformation in the international order, this timely and incisive volume offers a comprehensive overview of competing global and regional visions. Anchored in a rigorous analytical framework and a comparative perspective, it delivers a nuanced exploration of how key actors are shaping—and contesting—the contours of the emerging world order. Essential reading for anyone seeking to navigate the ongoing debates about the future of the global order." 

Sophie Vanhoonacker, Maastricht University, The Netherlands

"This timely and thoughtful volume addresses the increasingly rivalrous contest between the great powers over the proper rules, norms, institutions and organizations underpinning world order. The editors observe, "Traditionally, great powers have had an outsized role in re-ordering international relations during profound ruptures..." Precisely. The rapid rise of Chinese power and the revanchist assertion of Russian power has ruptured the longstanding consensus underpinning the U.S.-led liberal international order, inspiring America's rivals to advance alternative formulations. The vision that ultimately prevails will do so by successfully gaining influence over other major states - either by attraction or coercion. Competing Visions for International Order helps us understand great power visions of order, the preferences of other key countries, and the prospects for each great power to secure its vision as the one dominant over the future world order."

Thomas F. Lynch III, Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University, USA, and editor of Strategic Assessment 2025: Great Power Competition at Mid Decade.