Una Guerra costituente? Le relazioni politico-diplomatiche tra le grandi potenze alla luce dell’aggressione russa all’Ucraina

The article argues that the conflicts that have characterized the last twenty years—in particular the September 11, 2001 attacks and the invasion of Ukraine launched by the Russian Federation on February 24, 2022—can be regarded not only as a manifestation of general instability due to the advent of new forms of international violence and a shift in the balance of power, but also as a major challenge to the principles and institutional settings that have informed both the liberal international order and the Western regimes sitting at its core. Elaborating on this, the article discusses whether and to what extent these conflicts can be thought of as not (only) “systemic transformation”—that is, a process of redefining hierarchies (and hegemonies) within the international system—but rather a transformation of the system, insofar as the liberal and democratic principles and institutions that have increasingly informed the latter over the last hundred years had led to the emergence of a distinctive form of international system.