Professor Emeritus Martin Klein reflects on the progressive fragmentation of the contemporary international order, criticizing interpretations that reduce global politics to a simple competition between power blocs. Starting from a recent statement by Tucker Carlson, the contribution argues that the so-called "rules-based order" has not disappeared, but is going through a phase of increasing contestation and reconfiguration. What emerges is a reflection on the persistent centrality of international relations as a key to interpreting the transformations of the contemporary global order.