The volatility of a 'multiplex' world and the structural dangers of a global order

In his annual policy address on Jan. 14, Foreign Minister Sugiono offered a striking metaphor for our geopolitical reality. He described the 2026 landscape not merely as multipolar but as a “multiplex" world order. This concept, introduced by scholar Amitav Acharya, describes a world where diverse interests, dominant players and overlapping rules coexist, like different movies playing in a theater complex with multiple screens.

This diagnosis is intellectually fashionable: modern, adaptable and sophisticated. But the multiplex world is not just a complex theater; it is a chaotic trap.

If this is indeed the framework guiding the Foreign Ministry, or “Pejambon”, after the road where it is situated, we must urgently confront the terrifying problem of stability that lies beneath this cinematic analogy, particularly when the man running the biggest projector in the building is United States President Donald Trump.