The Innovation World Order of 1878 and “Multipolarity”

In the 1878 Paris World Fair an American inventor, a ”savant”, Thomas Alva Edison presented an amazing series of inventions – among other electric light, sound recording and telephone. For the awed contemporaries, the inventions were a promise of a great future. Many of Edison’s inventions spawned new industries. In the same Paris 1878 event, the preparations for the creation of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Rights (1883) and the equivalent copyright protection, the Berne Convention (1886), accelerated. The conventions enabled the global protection of these intangible rights, and thereby protection of innovation related investments.

International IPR conventions were early instruments of a rules-based world order. By harmonizing the rules of the game for protection of technology, they created a system that has helped strengthen innovation-based companies and creative industries in their success and wealth creation. Countries that early on showed progress in science, research and development, were able to benefit significantly from the opportunities provided by this international system.

Still, there have been critical voices – in developing countries, the convention system is often seen as a tool for maintaining technology-based hegemony of the West as an extension of colonialism. Recently, this point of view was raised by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his speech at st Petersburg Economic Forum 17^th June 2022. His demand for a ”multipolar world” links to criticism of the rules-based international trade system and the claim that the present world order is unfair, especially towards developing countries.

The international convention system was originally created during the era of colonialism. This ensured the effectiveness of the system – clear majority of world trade took place within the framework of the convention right from the beginning. Later, the colonial system collapsed and the number of independent states is close to 200 states. This, according to President Putin, is a counterfactual situation, where non-viable countries are allowed to persist.

The convention system can be defended especially from the point of view of small, developed countries – Finland as an example. When a small country joins the conventions, it enjoys the same international protection for inventions and artistic works as large industrialized countries. The convention system supports equality of nations. Still, self-evidently, joining conventions does not automatically guarantee a raise in level of technology.

President Putin and the “multipolar world”

According to President Putin, with current phase of globalization, a multipolar model of economic growth is emerging. Strong independent states that do not take orders from others define these rules, i.e. the new world order. Other countries are just colonies of stronger states.

A multipolar world means an order in which the world is ruled by big independent countries, who control their ”own” territories, which are determined by geographical approximation. In other words, the large independent states, to which Putin seems only to count USA, China, India and Russia, would rule the world by regionality principle – they would have supremacy in their neighboring regions. Small countries do not have the capacity for maintaining such control, so their resources should fall under the control of great powers capable of colonization.

The treaty- and law-based world order (among other, the UN and trade political organizations) has made possible the birth and existence of smaller and, in Putin’s world view, ”unviable” states. Thus, contractual and law-based arrangements that strengthen the stability of the world economy and the operating conditions for small states are Russia’s targets. These contractual arrangements must be replaced by force, which apparently means military coercion of neighboring areas and geographic control of resources. – In other words, the world should return to the state prior to the year of innovation 1878 and Thomas Alva Edison.

Ukraine is a test case for this new world order. Russia would not negotiate an agreement with Ukraine on the use of Ukraine’s natural or human resources in accordance with internationally agreed principles. Multipolarity means, to the contrary, that only Russia has sufficient resources to be independent and strong in this part of the world, in which case, ultimately, Ukraine’s resources belong to Russia and not for Ukraine. Based on geography, the resources of Ukraine cannot belong to the USA, China or India, let alone an “unviable” small state – so they belong to Russia.

This worldview is colonialist – restoring the world order of more than a hundred years ago, when strong multipolar states ruled. The subsequent development of the independent small states has changed this situation and there are now close to 200 independent states. In this fragmented world, the economically strongest country, the USA, has proven a winner, followed by China. Russia’s relative position has shrunk from 19^th century on. The reason for this development lies – in President Putin’s view – in the prevailing rules-based world trade system, which favors technologically strong countries.

The attraction of the USA as an economic and military partner is overwhelming. Russia tried, but was not able to achieve economic growth in the same way, nor demographic growth. The world’s youth is not looking to Russia in hope of a better life – California beats Sochi. Despite its abundant resources, Russia has not succeeded in creating hi-tech products and services. In the field of intangible rights and investments, Russia struggles even with much smaller European states such as Sweden. Envy and disappointment seem to be the drivers of the “multipolar world”.

The technological and digital globalization created by the Internet must be another fundamental threat to the “multipolar world” where control of raw materials and geography are fundaments. The biggest threat to geography-based state institutions may indeed come from technology that makes geography needless. Similarly, the rise of non-material wealth as a key measure of value in the world economy is a threat: Putin is counting on the return of hard, material values, raw materials, energy and food – intangibles he calls “mystical values”.

All in all, economic and technological development does not seem to be a matter of decision only, but requires purposeful action and developing the functioning of society’s economic institutions. If this work is not carried out successfully, the protection provided by the international convention system will remain useless, as the state will rather be a target of protection measures rather than their beneficiary. This creates tensions between developing and developed countries. A declining superpower will also feel this painfully.