The world is confronting a convergence of crises on a scale not seen since the Second World War. Wars and resource conflicts, rapid technological change, climate breakdown, the rise of authoritarian and reactionary movements, extreme inequality, gender, racial, caste and class discrimination, democratic erosion, economic instability, poverty, unemployment, homelessness, hunger, health emergencies, cost-of-living pressures, and declining trust in international institutions such as the UN and WTO are reinforcing one another. Together, they create the conditions for global disorder.
This disorder is not simply the result of accident or misfortune. It is shaped by a global economic and political order that concentrates wealth and power in fewer hands while distributing risk and suffering across working people and the planet. That order is capitalist in its drive for profit, imperial in its geopolitical reach, and often patriarchal and racialized in its social hierarchies. Its consequences are not abstract; they are lived.
In economic downturns, those who work the longest and hardest often suffer most. People with little access to technology bear the brunt of technological disruption. Those who build homes and clean cities may live in slums or without shelter. Those who produce food may go hungry. Working people die in wars fought in the name of nationalism, patriotism and state sovereignty. Those who live sustainably suffer most from climate change, while those who pollute most enjoy comforts denied to others. People may fight for democracy yet see little benefit from the states and governments they build. Those who exploit nature and human labor most often gain most. This is not random; it is systemic.
The crisis is also profitable. Amid US-led wars and conflicts, major oil companies have reported extraordinary gains. ExxonMobil reportedly doubled its profit to $14.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026, while Chevron reportedly quadrupled its profit to $12.1 billion. The US defense industry generated more than $1 trillion in total business activity and $500 billion in economic value in 2025, according to reported figures. Combined sales in US commercial aviation, space and defense reached $988.6 billion. The US accounts for roughly half of global weapons sales and remains the world’s largest arms exporter. Major contractors such as Lockheed Martin, RTX, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Boeing Defense have reported tens of billions in defense revenue. Insurance, pharmaceutical and biopharma industries have also reported strong profits during this period.
These figures cover only part of the picture. European defense, banking and insurance industries have also seen higher profits and turnover amid the cost-of-living crisis. In the UK, companies such as Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems have benefited. Defense spending is rising across many countries while welfare budgets face cuts. This raises a fundamental question: What is the purpose of defense spending that does not defend people in their daily lives? Too often, the narrative focuses on protecting nation-states and sovereignty while people remain subject to an economic system that prioritizes profit over human need.
The global disorder people experience was not created by ordinary people. It has been produced and sustained by political and economic elites, particularly in the United States and Europe, along with corporate and financial networks that benefit from crisis. Their priorities—dominance, domestication, discrimination, displacement and destruction—serve to control people, resources and creative capacity worldwide. This unjust system creates conditions for disorder and weakens rules, regulations and accountability. Even the existing international system—unequal and only partly democratic as it is—is often resisted by powerful capitalist and imperial interests when it constrains them.
None of this means that all crises have a single cause. Climate change, pandemics, technological change and authoritarianism have multiple drivers. But the distribution of burdens and benefits is not accidental. The same system that produces vast wealth for a few also produces precarity, insecurity and ecological breakdown for many.
This planetary crisis is also an opportunity. It can be a moment to internationalize and localize struggles against imperialist wars and capitalist exploitation. Solidarity-based movements have historically challenged ruling elites and their systems. The struggle for democracy, peace, prosperity and individual freedom is therefore also a struggle against capitalism and imperialism. Emancipation from these systems is necessary to secure individual dignity and collective well-being.
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*Academic based in UK
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