# Dalio sees a return to power-based world order

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/dalio-sees-a-return-to-power-based-world-order/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Ray Dalio](https://realalpha.app/people/ray-dalio/) · Founder, Bridgewater Associates · Founded Bridgewater and developed investment approaches like risk parity and All Weather for global institutions.
- Host: [Ed Elson](https://realalpha.app/people/ed-elson/)
- Show: Prof G Markets
- Episode: [Ray Dalio: The World Order Has Unraveled](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/), Apr 30, 2026
- Moment: 4:43 to 7:53 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/dalio-sees-a-return-to-power-based-world-order/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=283

## Quote

> “So we have changed the world order to a world order that was analogous to pre-1945, which is a **power rules kind of world order**.”
> — [Ray Dalio](https://realalpha.app/people/ray-dalio/) at [5:44](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=344) · Prof G Markets

## Takeaways

1. Dalio says postwar institutions lack enforcement in conflicts between major powers.
2. He compares the current order to power politics before 1945.
3. He places Iran within broader competition involving China and Russia.

## About this segment

Ray Dalio says the postwar multilateral system has given way to a power-based order because it lacks enforcement. He frames Iran as one front in wider conflicts involving China, Russia and others.

From “Ray Dalio: The World Order Has Unraveled”, Apr 30, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[4:54](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=294) In other words, how countries deal with each other. And throughout all history, there are great conflicts, wars. And then after the war, there's a new order. The power in the United States, for example, 1945, created a new monetary order, created a new world order, and that was a multilateral world order that was designed almost to some ways replicate the U.S. approach to representative democracy, the creating of the United Nations, multilateral organizations, including, can you imagine, the World Court or the World Bank or the World Trade Organization or the World Health Organization. That's all over.

[5:41](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=341) And it was in some ways naive because you take a vote and there's no enforcement mechanism, of course. That's not going to work in the dominant power. So that's the third. So we have changed the world order to a world order that was analogous to pre-1945, which is a power rules kind of world order. Number four, I told you about the acts of nature. And then, of course, number five is technology. They all have great implications.

[6:16](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=376) Technology can greatly reduce, can greatly improve productivity. And if those productivity creates incomes and so on, it can help greatly. And similarly, productivity, the use of AI and other ways can be used for war or can be used for other purposes. So that is the cycle. So now as we come into it, we see these things happening. They cannot be, should not be looked at individually. In other words, in focusing something like Iran on the war with Iran, we can lose sight of the fact that while it's very important, it's part of a world war.

[7:00](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=420) In other words, there are sides, China, Russia, Iran, and other countries, Korea, North Korea, and the like. And then there are other sides to that and that there are conflicts. And so the implications that this has are very profound. I was just in Asia for about a month meeting with different kinds of different world leaders and so on. And the implications of what is now happening with Iran and the United States and so on are very profound for that world order.

[7:35](https://realalpha.app/v/SLigyc-6qKY/?t=455) And we can, I'm sure, talk about it. So thank you for letting me get that picture out. And we can now zoom in on whatever you want to talk about.