World Order

If you study World Order, you answer one 25-mark extended response (about 1,000 words). Questions ask how effectively legal and non-legal measures maintain peace and security and resolve conflict.

• The nature of world order: the meaning of world order, the need for it, the nature of conflict (from regional conflicts to global threats), the development of world order (from the League of Nations to the UN), and the role of state sovereignty and national interest.
• Responses to world order: the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, treaties, intergovernmental and regional organisations, non-government organisations, the media, and Australia's role.
• Contemporary issues: the syllabus includes issues such as regional conflicts, the protection of civilians and the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Study at least one current conflict in detail.

Events below are stated as at 2026. Conflicts change quickly, so check the latest position on any conflict you write about.

World order is the way the international community manages relations between states and other actors to maintain peace and security. It relies on international law, institutions and cooperation.

• State sovereignty: each state has supreme authority within its territory and the right not to be interfered with (UN Charter Article 2(7)). Sovereignty is both the foundation of international law (states make it by consent) and its biggest limitation (states can refuse to comply).
• National interest: states act to protect their security, economy and values, which can conflict with collective goals.
• The nature of conflict: international (between states) or intra-state (civil wars, insurgencies), often involving non-state actors such as armed groups and terrorist organisations.

Development of world order

• Peace of Westphalia (1648): origin of the modern sovereign state system.
• League of Nations (1920): failed to prevent the Second World War; the United States never joined and it lacked enforcement power.
• United Nations (1945): founded to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war".
• Geneva Conventions (1949) and the growth of international humanitarian law.
• End of the Cold War (1991), followed by humanitarian interventions and international criminal tribunals (former Yugoslavia 1993, Rwanda 1994), then the ICC (2002).

The UN Charter

• Article 2(4): states must not use force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state.
• Two exceptions: self-defence (Article 51) and force authorised by the Security Council under Chapter VII.
• Chapter VI: peaceful settlement of disputes (negotiation, mediation, arbitration, the ICJ).

The Security Council

Fifteen members: five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) with a veto, and ten elected for two-year terms. Its resolutions under Chapter VII are binding. It can impose sanctions, authorise force and set up peacekeeping missions and tribunals.

The veto problem: permanent members have blocked action where their interests or allies are involved — for example Russia (often with China) on Syria from 2011, Russia on its own invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the United States on several resolutions about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In April 2022 the General Assembly adopted the "veto initiative": the Assembly must meet to debate any veto within 10 working days.

The General Assembly

All 193 member states, one vote each. Its resolutions are recommendations, not binding, but they show world opinion. On 2 March 2022, it adopted resolution ES-11/1 demanding Russia withdraw from Ukraine, with 141 votes in favour.

Peacekeeping

UN peacekeepers monitor ceasefires and protect civilians with the consent of the host state. Successes include East Timor (1999–2012, after the Australian-led INTERFET force). Failures include Rwanda (1994) and Srebrenica (1995), where peacekeepers could not prevent genocide and mass killing.

• International Court of Justice (ICJ): the UN's principal judicial organ. Decides disputes between states (with their consent) and gives advisory opinions. Its judgments bind the parties, but it has no enforcement power. Examples: provisional measures ordering Russia to suspend military operations in Ukraine (16 March 2022), which Russia ignored; The Gambia v Myanmar (genocide case filed 2019); South Africa v Israel (provisional measures, January 2024); the advisory opinion on states' obligations in respect of climate change (23 July 2025).
• International Criminal Court (ICC): established by the Rome Statute (1998), operating since 2002; tries individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression; works on complementarity. It has issued warrants for Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2023) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2024), and Rodrigo Duterte, former President of the Philippines, was transferred to The Hague in 2025. The US, Russia and China are not parties. Its effectiveness has also been challenged by US sanctions on ICC officials (from 2025) and by Hungary's withdrawal from the Rome Statute (effective June 2026).

• Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT, 1968, in force 1970): non-nuclear states agree not to acquire nuclear weapons; the five recognised nuclear-weapon states agree to pursue disarmament; all have a right to peaceful nuclear energy. India, Pakistan and Israel never joined; North Korea announced its withdrawal in 2003 and has since tested nuclear weapons.
• Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (2017, in force 2021): bans nuclear weapons outright, but no nuclear-armed state has joined, and nor has Australia.
• Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (1996): not yet in force.
• Chemical Weapons Convention (1993) and the Biological Weapons Convention (1972).
• Regional: the Treaty of Rarotonga (1985) created the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone.
• Verification: the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspects nuclear facilities.

• Regional and intergovernmental organisations: the European Union (sanctions on Russia), NATO (collective defence, Article 5), the African Union, ASEAN (principle of non-interference limits its response, as in Myanmar), the Pacific Islands Forum.
• NGOs: the International Committee of the Red Cross (guardian of international humanitarian law), Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (documenting violations), Médecins Sans Frontières (medical aid), ICAN (campaigned for the nuclear ban treaty, Nobel Peace Prize 2017).
• The media: real-time and social media coverage and open-source investigations can expose war crimes, but propaganda and disinformation distort public understanding.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, a clear breach of the prohibition on the use of force in Article 2(4).

• Security Council: Russia vetoed a draft resolution condemning the invasion (25 February 2022), so the Council could not act under Chapter VII.
• General Assembly: resolution ES-11/1 (2 March 2022) demanded Russia withdraw, with 141 votes in favour; later resolutions suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council (April 2022). These carry moral weight but are not binding.
• International Court of Justice: on 16 March 2022 it ordered Russia to suspend military operations (provisional measures). Russia did not comply.
• International Criminal Court: an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin (17 March 2023) over the unlawful deportation of children. It cannot be enforced unless he travels to a state willing to arrest him.
• New mechanisms: the Council of Europe's Register of Damage (2023) to record claims for compensation, and an agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe (June 2025) to set up a Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression.
• Non-legal measures: sanctions by Australia, the EU, the UK, the US and others; military and humanitarian aid; diplomacy and negotiations.

Model judgement: legal measures have clearly identified Russia's conduct as unlawful and laid foundations for future accountability, but the veto and the lack of enforcement have meant they could not stop the war. Non-legal measures, especially sanctions and aid, have had more practical effect, but have also not ended the conflict.

The responsibility to protect (R2P) was endorsed at the 2005 World Summit. Three pillars: (1) each state must protect its population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity; (2) the international community should help states do this; (3) if a state manifestly fails, the international community should take timely and decisive collective action through the Security Council. Its use in Libya (2011, Resolution 1973) led to regime change, which made Russia and China reluctant to support later R2P action, such as in Syria.

Australia supports a rules-based international order. Examples: a founding member of the UN; peacekeeping (East Timor 1999, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands 2003–2017); the ANZUS alliance (1951) and AUKUS (2021); sanctions and aid in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; and accountability for its own forces after the Brereton Report (2020) into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan.

Worked example: evaluating one response

Response: Security Council sanctions on North Korea.

• What it is: binding Chapter VII sanctions since 2006, restricting arms, oil and trade.
• Strength: binding on all UN members and broad in scope.
• Weakness: North Korea has continued testing missiles and nuclear weapons; enforcement depends on neighbouring states; in 2024 Russia vetoed the renewal of the UN panel of experts that monitored the sanctions.
• Judgement: "Sanctions have increased the cost of North Korea's weapons programs but have not stopped them, showing the limits of measures that depend on great power cooperation."

• Treating General Assembly resolutions as binding.
• Saying the ICJ tries individuals (that is the ICC).
• Ignoring non-legal measures (diplomacy, sanctions, NGOs, media) when the question asks for "legal and non-legal".
• Writing a narrative of a conflict instead of evaluating the responses.
• Using events without dates, or treating a conflict's status as fixed.

• Structure: a judgement in the introduction; body paragraphs on the UN, international courts, treaties, regional and non-state actors (or on one contemporary conflict from several angles); conclusion.
• Criteria for effectiveness: maintaining peace and security, protecting civilians, accountability, the influence of sovereignty and national interest, enforcement.
• Use at least one detailed contemporary conflict with several dated responses.
• About 1,000 words in about 45 minutes.

• Crime: international crime and the ICC.
• Human Rights: state sovereignty, R2P and human rights enforcement.
• Global Environmental Protection (another option): the ICJ climate advisory opinion and environmental treaties.