The Resilience of the Multirelational Structure of Geopolitical Treaties is Critically Linked to Past Colonial World Order and Offshore Fiscal Havens

The governance of the political and economic world order builds on a complex architecture of international treaties at various geographical scales. In a historical phase of high institutional turbulence, assessing the stability of such architecture with respect to the unilateral defection of single countries and the breakdown of single treaties is important. We carry out this analysis on the whole global architecture and find that the countries with the highest disruption potential are mostly medium-small and micro countries. Political stability is highly dependent on many former colonial overseas territories that are today part of the global network of fiscal havens, as well as on emerging economies, mostly from South-East Asia. Economic stability depends on medium-sized European and African countries. Single global treaties have surprisingly less disruptive potential, with the major exception of the WTO. Our results suggest that the potential fragility of the world order seems to be more directly related to global inequality and fiscal injustice than commonly believed and that the legacy of the colonial world order is still strong in the current international relations scenario. In particular, vested interests related to tax avoidance seem to have a structural role in the political architecture of global governance.

Automated summary

The governance of the political and economic world order relies on international treaties at various geographical scales. Assessing the stability of this architecture is crucial, considering the potential unilateral defection of countries and treaty breakdowns. Our analysis reveals that small and micro countries pose the highest disruption potential, while political stability depends on overseas territories and emerging economies. Economic stability relies on medium-sized European and African countries. Surprisingly, single global treaties have limited disruptive potential, apart from the WTO. Our findings suggest that the fragility of the world order is closely linked to global inequality and fiscal injustice, highlighting the continued influence of the colonial world order.