Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd argue that the "rules-based world order" as most people perceive it never really existed. Some will say that it existed for a brief moment in the 90s-2000s. Back then, most countries played nice with the international treaties even if there were no penalties for noncompliance, right? No - it just appeared that way. The 90s and 2000s were a unipolar world, the peak of the American Empire, and America made it emine…
Some will say that it existed for a brief moment in the 90s-2000s. So were the Nuremberg Trials not an instance of the RBWO? (And all the UN mediations in e.g. Palestine, Korea, etc. from its very founding)
Korea... it preserved South Korea's dictator in power, which allowed for a modern democratic and prosperous South Korea to happen. Back then it was little more than protecting the US-backed dictator against the Soviets-backed one. Both were pretty terrible and murderous.