The International Society of the Twenty-First Century and New Technologies

Every technological revolution generated trends across the States’ domestic policy, as well as in international relations, produced social expectations to promote progress and better living, but also carried out threats and challenges for the States and societies. Since the financial crisis in 2008, international relations have crossed multifaceted dynamics of changes: the leadership is energetically disputing, the universal values are under assault, the new economic private powers appear, people are concerned about their social wealth, and the States have to adopt a policy to manage these challenges. New actors took advantage of mass discontent about underprotection towards the future. They target democracy as all-permissiveness and defend hard ways of control. In international relations, this trend refers to the revisionist narratives of democracy that interpret legitimacy as “economic well-being” (China) or “secure well-being” (Russia). In parallel, global governance architecture based on free commerce and goodwill is also attacked by sabotaging the World Trade Organization and the United Nations principles due to trade and conventional wars involving global powers. Consequently, the chapter will discuss two central questions: the demands for renewing the social contract and the systemic crisis of international order based on legacy and shared values.