The pace at which the world is changing has picked up speed. There are a lot of moments to point to this year: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the expiration of the New START treaty. For me, the standout moment came in early January, when American forces landed in Venezuela to capture President Nicolás Maduro, and President Trump announced that his administration would temporarily be running the country. It certainly wasn’t the first time that Washington had intervened dramatically in Latin America. But this time a message rang clear: The United States is no longer playing by the old rules. The result? The political and economic system established by the victorious powers after World War II is cracking. My colleagues and I on Times Opinion’s international team wanted to explore how this change is playing out in different parts of the world — how governments are reacting, pivoting or adapting, and what their actions mean. Our series, “The New World Disorder,” takes readers into this shifting landscape. In the opening guest essay, the historian Margaret MacMillan warns us not to shy away from acknowledging that we’re entering a new era. “We must prepare ourselves,” she writes, “which begins with being honest about the seriousness of the moment we’re in, and accepting that our fragile system is faltering.” In the second installment, the Canadian journalist Curtis Gillespie takes us on the road in Alberta to talk to separatists seeking independence — and being cheered on by Trump’s allies in Washington. We hope you’ll stay with us in the coming weeks on this tour of the new era of disorder. Spoiler alert: This won’t offer any answers for where we’re headed. But it will open windows onto the pitfalls — and promises — of a new, shared reality.
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