A phoenix rising? Gaza and a growing movement to realise a just and principle-based international order

The nature of atrocities in Gaza—which expansive evidence suggests amount to genocide—is dramatically fuelling a movement for a more principled and just rules-based international order. A rising transnational movement of actors including states, regional and interest-based blocs of states, international organisations, and a wide swath of civil society and individuals are demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and just resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis—one that considers the context of Israel’s decades-long, Western state-supported, occupation of Palestinian territories and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination. In the process, they are contesting the legitimacy of the existing rules-based order built on colonial foundations and deep power asymmetries at odds with the stated principles, rules and norms of this very order. The piece examines mounting critiques of hypocrisy and double standards in international affairs, and how the vast, interconnected array of initiatives, providing pressure from above (through political and legal mechanisms) and below (through legal actions, protests and non-violence strategies), are cohering around perceived needed action on Gaza and wider system change. It then reflects on the implications for the evolution of a more principled- and just-rules-based order, in conversation with key scholars and analysts on this topic.