What is the New World Order?
The “New World Order” (NWO) was originally a term in international politics for the new international order that emerges after a great war or a change of system. It was used in connection with the plan for the League of Nations after World War I and the founding of the United Nations after World War II, and in 1990, after the end of the Cold War and the Gulf crisis, U.S. President George H. W. Bush drew attention by using the phrase in a speech.
The New World Order as a conspiracy theory
In the world of conspiracy theories, however, the phrase came to be used in a completely different sense: the claim that secret societies such as the Illuminati and the Freemasons, or international financiers and politicians, are trying to abolish national sovereignty, unite the world under one government, and monitor and control the people.
In these conspiracy theories, international organizations, vaccines, national ID number systems, cashless payments and surveillance cameras are sometimes all said to be part of the plan. Such stories have also been tied to deep state conspiracy theories and spread around the world via the internet.
How to approach the conspiracy theory
No solid evidence has been presented for New World Order conspiracy theories. Some of them also contain discriminatory claims that a particular ethnic group or community is the “mastermind controlling the world,” and in the past these have led to persecution and hate.
On the other hand, anxiety about the spread of surveillance technology and the concentration of international power is debated as a real social issue. The popularity of dystopian works depicting the horrors of a controlled society may be one expression of that anxiety. It is important to distinguish conspiracy theories from real problems and to check where information comes from.
