By Bhabani Shankar Nayak
The world today is facing an unprecedented level and volume of crisis, the gravest since the World War II. Imperialist wars and resource conflicts pursued to sustain the dominance of Yankee hegemony; technological disruptions; the climate crisis; the forward march of right-wing reactionary and authoritarian forces; the rise of income and wealth inequalities; gender, racial, caste and class discrimination; a democratic deficit within democracies; the growth of illiberal social, cultural, political and religious forces; economic crisis; consolidation of exploitative regimes of power, the growth of poverty, unemployment, homelessness and hunger; global health crisis; rising discontent over the cost-of-living crisis; and the declining legitimacy of global institutions like the UN, WTO and other international bodies create fertile conditions for the rise of global disorder, combined with the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a few who control the world at the cost of people and the planet.
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The global disorder witnessed today is not accidental; it is by systematic design to justify the hegemony of the governing classes, who uphold the interests of patriarchal, and racialised capitalism controlled by a few individuals in the world. This engineered global disorder has far-reaching consequences for the everyday lives and livelihoods of people and the planet. Public trust in law, states, governments, political parties and political leadership is declining on a massive scale, accelerating global disorder down to local levels of governance. The world is moving into a trust free zone where individualism thrives at the cost of collective foundation of life and society.
Why do we face this global disorder and planetary crisis? Who is responsible for this global disorder? How can we overcome this crisis? The answers to these questions are crucial to understanding and overcoming this planetary crisis, which puts millions of working people under threat to their lives and livelihoods beyond the borders of bourgeois Westphalian nation-states.
Under the patriarchal and racialised capitalist system, those who work the hardest and longest hours suffer the most from economic slowdown. Those with nothing to do with technology suffer most from technological disruptions. Working people build homes and clean cities, yet live homeless conditions in urban slums. Those who produce food suffer from hunger. Working people also die in wars and conflicts in the name of nationalism, patriotism and the protection of nation-state sovereignty. Working people who live basic, sustainable lives suffer most from the climate crisis, while those who pollute the environment enjoy comforts of leisure and pleasure denied to working people. Those who exploit nature and human beings the most enjoy the most, systematically looting the labour and creativity of working people.
The over-exploitation of nature and human beings is systematic. This is therefore a systemic crisis that produces global disorder to domesticate people and dismantle their societies by atomising and automating life, preventing any form of collective struggle against the capitalist system profiting from the crisis.
Amidst this crisis of global disorder, fuelled by American imperialist wars and conflicts, major American oil companies are making profits on an unprecedented scale. The ExxonMobil has doubled its profit to $14.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026, while Chevron has quadrupled its profits to $12.1 billion. The American defence industry generated more than $1 trillion in total business activity and $500 billion in economic value in 2025. The combined sales in the American commercial aviation, space and defence sectors reached $988.6 billion. The US accounts for 50 percent of global weapons sales and remains the world’s largest arms exporter.
Within the American defence industry, Lockheed Martin made $72.14 billion in defence revenue out of a total $75.05 billion; RTX (Raytheon) generated $46 billion out of $88.6 billion; General Dynamics made $39.4 billion out of $52.6 billion; Northrop Grumman made approximately $36.8 billion; and Boeing Defense made $34.2 billion.
These figures cover only American defence industries during 2025 and 2026. Emerging tech and defence companies in America are also making billions in profits during this planetary crisis. The American insurance industry is also generating record profits this financial year. The American pharmaceutical and biopharma industries are also generating significantly higher profits than at any previous point in their existence.
Similarly, the European defence industry is witnessing higher turnover. European banking and insurance industries are making huge profits amid the cost-of-living crisis in Europe. Defence expenditure is growing massively across the world, while people confront cuts to welfare budgets. What is the point of defence expenditure that has failed to defend people in their everyday lives?
People did not produce this global disorder; imperialist and capitalist forces led by US and European ruling classes produced it to continue their hegemony over people and their natural resources. Global disorder is designed by these ruling classes and their capitalist cronies to dominate, domesticate, discriminate, displace and destroy lives and livelihoods, and to control people, their creative abilities and resources across the world. This unjust system creates the conditions for global disorder and legitimises the global breakdown of rules, regulations and accountability.
This global and planetary crisis is an opportunity to internationalise and localise struggles against imperialist wars and the capitalist system of exploitation and inequality. Struggles based on solidarity have never failed in history to defeat the ruling class and its capitalist designs and systems, which breed global disorder to hide their failures and to sustain and expand themselves by deepening crisis. Therefore, the struggle for democracy, peace, prosperity and individual freedom is a struggle against capitalism and imperialism.
Emancipation from capitalism and imperialism can only ensure survival of individual dignity and collective happiness.
The writer teaches at the London Metropolitan University.
