A series of international organizations—a network of networks—created by Russia and China form the pillars upon which an alternative to the Western-dominated world order are being built. There is already an institutional split between the West and the rest evidencing the pre-schism bifurcation among great powers: the G7 and G20.

Nearly a decade ago I began warning that NATO expansion and the West’s failure to understand that Russian national security interests not a Russian desire to ‘recreate the USSR’ or ‘former Russian empire’ would lead to a world split apart between the West and ‘the rest’ (Sino-Russian ‘strategic partnership and those states oriented towards it).