My Take | Sometimes it's better the devil you know

Thomas Hobbes, the philosopher of the English civil war, applies his notion of the state of nature to how societies will degenerate into anarchy or civil war when there is no overarching authority to rein in people's passions and greed.

Extending his idea to relations between states, scholars have argued international relations are anarchic unless they are lorded over by a hegemon like Napoleon or a world cop like the US.

It's remarkable how this Hobbesian argument is central to two of the great ideological debates today. When Beijing's defenders get tired of arguing for the legitimacy of one-party rule, they point to a simple cause and effect: it's us or chaos.

When critics complain about US President Barack Obama's reluctance to commit militarily in Syria, they revive the international side of the Hobbesian argument.

There is no one left to enforce the rules if the US doesn't commit.

We have seen how a US-led G6/G7 of industrialised powers expanded to G8 and now G20. Once you get to double digits, collective leadership just becomes leaderless.