Did the global order die with Khashoggi?
Earlier this month Jamal Khashoggi – a Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of the Saudi government – walked into Saudi Arabiaʹs consulate in Istanbul to pick up documents that would enable him to marry his Turkish fiancee. Instead of receiving help from his countryʹs government, he was tortured, murdered and dismembered by a team of its agents.
It is a shocking crime that raises some serious questions, not least regarding the appropriate balance between defending human rights and maintaining long-standing (and lucrative) alliances. More fundamentally, the sheer brazenness with which the Saudi government had Khashoggi killed – not to mention Western leadersʹ weak response – has underscored for people around the world just how coldly calculated geopolitical machinations really are.
Transparency is usually a virtue to be encouraged. Here, however, the revelation comes at a cost. The belief that principles, values and rules hold at least some weight in international relations has a stabilising effect. As that belief is shaken – say, by the poisoning earlier this year of the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on British soil – the global order is damaged, perhaps beyond repair.
Beware an absence of common values
The de-legitimising effect of such episodes is exacerbated by a broader abandonment of formalities – such as workplace dress codes and standards for communication – that has been fuelled by the rise of social media. As our public and private lives are blurred, public figures are under pressure to appear as "real" and "normal" as our neighbours and colleagues.
Of course, not all of these shifts are necessarily bad. The breakdown of formal structures can create space for independent thinking and innovation. The danger comes when no new framework emerges to help guide our behaviour – and, more important, the behaviour of our leaders – to ensure that it adheres to some shared values or reasonable expectations.
U.S. President Donald Trump embodies this risk. Since coming onto the political scene, Trump has shattered expectations about how a U.S. presidential candidate – and, subsequently, a U.S. president – should behave. While there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a political leader communicating frankly and directly with his or her constituents, the tone and style of Trumpʹs delivery – largely via Twitter – is highly damaging.
His below-the-belt insults, racist dog whistles and unfounded attacks on the media and other democratic institutions are deepening political and social divisions, while diminishing respect for the presidency and the U.S. more generally.
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