Richard Haass: The New World Disorder, where bad news outweighs the good

From the Ukraine war to the AI arms race, the global outlook appears bleak and is about to get bleaker

Ukrainian servicemen ride on top of an armored personnel carrier. The counteroffensive, launched three and a half months ago, has made limited progress as ell-fortified Russian forces still control large swaths of Ukraine’s east and south.

There is an old Soviet joke in which a journalist asks the General Secretary of the Communist Party to assess the country’s economy. “Good” is the short answer. The journalist implores the leader to elaborate so he can complete his story. “In that case,” the General Secretary responds, ‘not good'.”

Much the same could be said of the state of the world today. As many global leaders gathered in New York for the 78th annual session of the United Nations General Assembly, there were notable exceptions, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and French President Emmanuel Macron. There are reasons to be concerned.