China can play critical role in reshaping global order

The world is witnessing turmoil and failures among international institutions. The capability of US global leadership is in relative decline. Meanwhile, none of the present international organizations are capable of providing effective leadership for the international order.

Institutions that cannot properly balance rights and responsibilities are hard-pressed to provide effective leadership.

When international institutions are unable to resolve global problems, the result is a combination of the rapid proliferation of international organizations and institutions, and a decline in their capacity to resolve problems or alleviate crisis.

Examples include the World Bank and IMF, which are powerless to help Europe out of its debt crisis, and the UN, which can do nothing to resolve the dispute between Palestine and Israel. After 10 years of the "War on Terror," the world is less secure, and terrorist attacks are on the rise.

Rather than attempting to reform these institutions and so expand their capacity to resolve problems, however, the approach has been to create more international institutions, equally incapable in this respect. Many such institutions are highly inefficient, or in danger of being little more than official talking shops.

This phenomenon is particularly evident in the Asian-Pacific region, where APEC, the ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN+3, the East Asia Summit and the Six-Party Talks are all relatively ineffective. The inability of great powers to cooperate and take on responsibility has deprived these institutions of the ability to act.