The world has changed. The old rules of the international order no longer apply. Or at least they have been superseded by a more complicated chaotic set of rules.  US President Donald Trump has smashed the “classical mechanics” of the old world order. He has introduced a new economic paradigm of “quantum geopolitics” and a fractured world, Oleksandr Dombrovsky, Chair of the Board, Global 100% Renewable tells Interfax.

Newtonian classical mechanics was a revolution when he published some 400 years ago a set of relatively simple equations that gave well defined solutions that seemed to answer all the main physics questions of the day. In particularly he solved the millennium-old problem of explaining and predicting the movement of the stars. It was a golden era of certainty and simplicity.

That went up in smoke with the advent of quantum mechanics, pioneered by Neils Bohr and the Copenhagen school of physics. The clean round number solutions of Newtonian mechanics gave way to the uncertainties of quantum mechanical probabilities and even worse the included concepts like wave-particle duality and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which says even in principle it is impossible to ever have a precise knowledge of where anything actually is. That was compounded by the introduction of relativity, which remains incompatible with the ideas of quantum mechanics to this day.

After millennia of vicious wars in Europe that killed millions of people, the advent of the UN and the signing of the UN charter in 1945 was supposed to be another Newtonian revolution, the bedrock of a new golden era of certainty, peace and prosperity with the same clear well defined rules that governed the firmament as Newton’s three laws of motion did for his field.

The world no longer operates under the stable post-war Newtonian diplomacy. Instead, we have entered what Ukrainian businessman Oleksandr Dombrovsky called in an opinion piece published by Interfax a new phase of international relations that are marred by the same uncertainty and imprecision as quantum mechanics.

Superposition of Allies:
In the age of quantum geopolitics, alliances are no longer binary. A country can be both a friend and an adversary—simultaneously. “Your ally can simultaneously work for your enemy—and that is now the norm,” Dombrovsky writes. This state of “superposition” means that nations may condemn aggression in public while privately engaging in trade with the aggressor, such as buying energy or selling high-tech components. The true nature of an alliance only becomes visible at the moment of crisis. Or in physics terms, you only know if Schrodinger’s cat is dead or alive when you open the box and look at it.

The End of Guarantees:
Traditional security agreements, once viewed as firm commitments, now function more like probabilities than promises. “Guarantees no longer exist—only probabilities,” Dombrovsky argues. Treaties and alliances, including Nato’s Article 5, have become “wave functions”—they may collapse into action or inaction depending on unpredictable external conditions. In this view, no document offers absolute protection—only varying levels of likelihood. It’s the diplomatic equivalent of wave-particle duality, where a treaty can be two different things at the same time and the reality of which is determined by what you ask it to do.

The Observer Effect:
In quantum physics, observing a system changes it. In geopolitics, the same holds true. “If you do not shape the agenda yourself, you automatically become an object in someone else’s game,” Dombrovsky warns. Nations that fail to proactively set narratives, form alliances, or define the terms of debate risk being manipulated by those that do. Passive actors become targets in a game they do not control.

Quantum Entanglement:
Conflicts are no longer confined to one region. “Local conflicts no longer exist,” Dombrovsky writes. A missile launch in the Middle East can ripple instantly through global energy prices or trade routes in Europe and Asia. Just as particles in quantum physics can affect each other at a distance, geopolitical events are entangled in a hyper-connected world where borders or physical separations provide little insulation.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle in Politics:
Understanding one aspect of a geopolitical actor often obscures another. “The more precisely we try to measure one characteristic… the less precisely we understand another,” says Dombrovsky, which is the essence of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: if you know precisely how fast a particle is travelling then you have no idea whatsoever of where it is. A country’s official stance may be clear, but its economic motives, backdoor deals, or military intentions may remain hidden. In hybrid warfare and diplomacy, intentions and actions cannot be fully measured at the same time.

The Quantum Tunnelling Effect:
In classical diplomacy, some actions appear impossible due to lack of political will, legal structure, or global consensus. Yet in this new era, change can bypass traditional barriers. “The aggressor tunnels through sanctions barriers; a decision blocked for years is adopted overnight,” Dombrovsky notes. Outcomes that once seemed out of reach can suddenly materialise through non-linear and unpredictable means.

The Collapse of Classical Stability:
Summing up the new reality, Dombrovsky argues that the world has transitioned into a state where chaos, not order, is the default condition. “Classical stability is a thing of the past.” In this environment, victory belongs not to the most powerful, but to the most adaptive. “The winner will be the one who accepts chaos as the norm… and becomes an active Observer—one who does not wait for help, but sets the agenda and forces others to react.”

In this quantum world, long-term plans give way to agile strategies, and fixed alliances dissolve into shifting probabilities. As Dombrovsky concludes, survival now depends on those who can not only withstand uncertainty—but thrive within it.