History suggests that human conditions have, on the whole, continued to improve. Yet the critical role of human agency in this process cannot be denied. Progress is not automatic. Societies must work consciously toward betterment, minimising suffering and shortening periods of turbulence. However, human imaginings of the good and the real conditions required to realise it often diverge. The global leadership that emerged from the victorious side after the Second World War shaped the post-war international order. Had that leadership been better at imagining a more inclusive and sustainable conception of the good from the ruins of the war, it is unlikely that the world would have reached the present impasse.
A similar limitation marked the institutional imagination of the post war period. The GATT rested on the assumption that principles resembling national governance, such as uniform rules, reciprocity, and procedural equality, could be effectively applied at the international level. With the benefit of hindsight, one can infer that this did not allow it to live up to its promise. The international system operates among sovereign yet deeply asymmetrical nations, where formal equality does not produce substantive parity. The United Nations reflected the same contradiction by advancing a universal normative framework while confronting persistent power asymmetries. These tensions were visible early on, but were largely ignored in the GATT negotiations toward the WTO.
This is the time to realign reality with imagination.
Niraj Kumar Jha
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