Updated 17 February 2026 at 15:10 IST
'Power And Not Law Rules International Relations': Ray Dalio On New World Order
"We are in the Stage 6 part of the Big Cycle in which there is great disorder arising from being in a period in which there are no rules, might is right, and there is a clash of great powers," billionaire investor Ray Dalio said.
Ray Dalio, Founder of Bridgewater Associates, noted that the post-1945 world order was pronounced dead by most world leaders.
"We are in the Stage 6 part of the Big Cycle in which there is great disorder arising from being in a period in which there are no rules, might is right, and there is a clash of great powers," the billionaire investor said.
In his post, Dalio further explained that “when individual countries have more power than the collectives of countries, the more powerful individual countries rule.”
Dalio's remarks resonate with several across the globe, especially after cross-nation conflicts came to the fore as a result of ever-evolving economic policies witnessed in the post-tariff world. He also listed out the frequently utilized economic tools that countries bank on to pursue trade wars.
Most-Common Tactics To Weaponize Economic Tools
Asset freezes/seizures: Preventing an enemy/rival from using or selling foreign assets they rely on. These measures can range from asset freezes for targeted groups in a country (e.g., the current US sanctions of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or the initial US asset freeze against Japan in World War II) to more severe measures like unilateral debt repudiation or outright seizures of a country’s assets (e.g., some top US policy makers have been talking about not paying our debts to China).
Blocking capital markets access: Preventing a country from accessing their own or another country’s capital markets (e.g., in 1887 Germany banned the purchase of Russian securities and debt to impede Russia’s military buildup; the US is now threatening to do this to China).
Embargoes/blockades: Blocking trade in goods and/or services in one’s own country and in some cases with neutral third parties for the purpose of weakening the targeted country or preventing it from getting essential items (e.g., the US’s oil embargo on Japan and cutting off its ships’ access to the Panama Canal in World War II) or blocking exports from the targeted country to other countries, thus cutting off their income (e.g., France’s blockade of the UK in the Napoleonic Wars).
Ray Dalio's X post emphasizing on the end of the post-1945 world order comes after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, “The world order as it has stood for decades no longer exists,” and that we are in a period “great power politics.”
Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron echoed Merz’s assessment and said that Europe’s old security structures tied to the previous world order don't exist and that Europe must prepare for war.
Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that we are in a “new geopolitics era” because the “old world” is gone, according to Dalio's detailed tweet.
Published By : Nitin Waghela
Published On: 17 February 2026 at 15:07 IST