Can the Imperial Core Be Reformed? Chris Hedges and Aaron Maté on the Collapse of the Global Order

May 29, 2026 , Joshua Scheer, https://scheerpost.com/2026/05/29/can-the-imperial-core-be-reformed-chris-hedges-and-aaron-mate-on-the-collapse-of-the-global-order/

At the Vancouver Web Summit, Chris Hedges and Aaron Maté examine Gaza, the erosion of international law, AI-powered warfare, media censorship, and whether meaningful reform is still possible inside a system they argue is designed to preserve empire.

For decades, Western leaders have championed a so-called “rules-based international order,” presenting international law, human rights, and democratic institutions as the foundation of global stability. But what happens when the very powers that claim to defend those principles openly violate them?

In a wide-ranging conversation at the Vancouver Web Summit, journalist Chris Hedges and investigative reporter Aaron Maté argue that the war in Gaza has exposed a crisis far deeper than a single conflict. From the collapse of international legal norms and the weaponization of global institutions to the rise of AI-driven warfare and expanding censorship across the West, both contend that the legitimacy of the post-World War II order is rapidly unraveling.

The discussion moves beyond foreign policy to examine the consequences at home: shrinking democratic space, growing surveillance, media consolidation, and the increasing influence of tech billionaires over public life. While Maté points to remaining pockets of institutional accountability, Hedges argues that meaningful change will not come from political elites or established parties, but from organized popular movements capable of challenging concentrated power.

At its core, the conversation asks a question that increasingly defines our political moment: Can the imperial center be reformed, or has the system become so corrupted that only mass resistance can alter its course?

The Empire Has No Clothes: Chris Hedges and Aaron Maté on the Collapse of the Rules-Based Order

For decades, Western leaders sold the world a comforting fiction.

International law mattered. Human rights mattered. Democracy mattered. The United States and its allies, whatever their flaws, were supposedly the guardians of a rules-based international order.

According to Chris Hedges and Aaron Maté, that illusion is now impossible to maintain.

Speaking at the Vancouver Web Summit, the two journalists argued that the war in Gaza has done more than devastate a population. It has exposed the moral and institutional bankruptcy of the very system that claims to govern the world.

“The genocide in Gaza has obliterated any pretense of international law,” Hedges said.

The significance of Gaza, they argued, extends far beyond Palestine. What the world is witnessing is the public collapse of institutions that once claimed to provide accountability, restraint and justice. The crime itself is horrific enough. But equally revealing is the response: governments supplying weapons, blocking censure, shielding allies from consequences and demanding that the public look away.

For much of the Global South, this reality is hardly new. What is different, Hedges argued, is that the mask has finally slipped for audiences in the West.

The Death of the Rules-Based Order

Throughout the discussion, both journalists returned to a central theme: institutions are only as strong as the political will behind them.

The United Nations, international courts, humanitarian law and global watchdog organizations were all designed to constrain power. Yet again and again, powerful states have demonstrated that those constraints apply only to weaker nations.

Maté pointed to what he described as the growing willingness of international institutions themselves to accommodate power rather than challenge it. Long-standing principles and resolutions can be discarded overnight when geopolitical interests demand it.

What emerges is not a world governed by law but by hierarchy.

The powerful write the rules.

The rest are expected to obey them.

AI and the Machinery of Modern Empire

One of the most chilling moments of the conversation focused on artificial intelligence.

While Silicon Valley markets AI as a tool of progress, Hedges and Maté warned that it is increasingly becoming a tool of surveillance, censorship and warfare.

Hedges described a future in which technology giants function as partners in a rapidly expanding surveillance state. He argued that algorithms are already helping select military targets and enabling forms of social control that previous authoritarian systems could only dream about.

Maté raised the disturbing possibility that automated systems are already playing direct roles in lethal decision-making, with devastating consequences when flawed intelligence becomes automated violence.

The issue, they argued, is not the technology itself.

The issue is who owns it.

Who controls it.

And whose interests it serves.

As wealth and technological power become concentrated in fewer hands, democratic oversight becomes increasingly irrelevant.

The people building the future are not elected.

Yet they wield powers once reserved for governments.

Manufacturing Ignorance

If the empire’s first weapon is force, its second is amnesia.

Both journalists argued that one reason the public remains disconnected from the consequences of Western power is because information itself is increasingly controlled.

The conversation touched on censorship, algorithmic suppression and the shrinking space for dissenting voices. Images that challenge official narratives are hidden, marginalized or removed. Journalists who challenge prevailing orthodoxies often find themselves isolated or punished.

What is striking, they argued, is how openly this process now occurs.

No elaborate conspiracy is required.

The institutions often announce exactly what they are doing.

The public is simply expected to accept it.

The result is a society where citizens are encouraged to consume endless information while remaining disconnected from the realities that information might reveal.

Why Independent Journalism Matters

Both men argued that this crisis has created an opening for independent media.

As trust in corporate outlets declines, audiences increasingly turn toward journalists willing to challenge official narratives and ask uncomfortable questions.

Yet they also acknowledged the dangers.

Independent media is not immune to the pressures of capitalism. Clickbait, outrage farming and audience capture can corrupt alternative media just as thoroughly as corporate ownership corrupts mainstream outlets.

The challenge, Hedges argued, is maintaining integrity in a media environment increasingly driven by algorithms and attention metrics.

Journalism is supposed to tell the truth.

Not maximize engagement.

Not serve power.

Not protect careers.

Tell the truth.

That simple principle has become radical.

Can the System Be Reformed?

The sharpest disagreement—or perhaps difference in emphasis—came when the discussion turned toward solutions.

Maté expressed hope that some institutions remain worth saving. He pointed to international legal actions and pockets of accountability as evidence that reform remains possible.

Hedges was far less optimistic.

“The system’s not reformable,” he said.

His argument was blunt. Democratic institutions have been hollowed out. Political parties no longer function as genuine vehicles of popular power. Economic elites dominate both politics and media. Elections alone cannot reverse the trajectory.

If change is to come, he argued, it will come from organized mass movements capable of disrupting the normal functioning of power.

History, he noted, offers the same lesson repeatedly.

Workers won rights because they organized.

Civil rights were won because people mobilized.

Democracy expanded because ordinary people forced it to expand.

Nothing was given voluntarily.institutions remain worth saving. He pointed to international legal actions and pockets of accountability as evidence that reform remains possible.

Hedges was far less optimistic.

“The system’s not reformable,” he said.

His argument was blunt. Democratic institutions have been hollowed out. Political parties no longer function as genuine vehicles of popular power. Economic elites dominate both politics and media. Elections alone cannot reverse the trajectory.

If change is to come, he argued, it will come from organized mass movements capable of disrupting the normal functioning of power.

History, he noted, offers the same lesson repeatedly.

Workers won rights because they organized.

Civil rights were won because people mobilized.

Democracy expanded because ordinary people forced it to expand.

Nothing was given voluntarily.

The Empire Has Been Revealed

The conversation ultimately returned to a simple but devastating observation.

What many people once dismissed as isolated failures increasingly appears systemic.

Wars without accountability.

Technology without oversight.

Media without independence.

Democracy without meaningful participation.

Whether one agrees with every argument presented by Hedges and Maté, the question they raise is impossible to ignore.

If the institutions designed to restrain power consistently serve power instead, what exactly are they preserving?

The answer may explain why so many people around the world no longer see a rules-based order.

They see an empire.

And empires, history suggests, rarely reform themselves.

May 30, 2026 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international