"the international system established after World War II had been disrupted by multiple crises, leaving global governance at a "critical crossroads"" [critical crossroads]
Wang Yi's framing of the post-WWII order as disrupted and at a crossroads directly evidences the structural claim that major powers now openly treat existing institutions as inadequate for current challenges.
Reasoning from this article
When a P5 member publicly declares the post-1945 order at a 'critical crossroads,' it legitimizes norm entrepreneurship by all major actors simultaneously, reducing the coordination focal point that existing institutions provided. This dynamic — where the hegemon's challengers frame reform as urgency rather than revisionism — is a recurring precursor to contested parallel institution-building, as seen with BRICS, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and now potentially AI governance bodies.