If you felt the ground shift beneath your feet this week, it may have been the new world order slotting into place.
At least, that's what many observers deduced from the grand military parade presided over by China’s leader Chairman Xi Jinping, flanked on either side by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un.
At one point, the three authoritarians were overheard discussing immortality, which, in their case, would not only mean living, but ruling forever too.
Are these would-be eternal strongmen and their friends the architects of a new era?
Whether history will judge this as the moment the US-led international order, set up in the ashes of World War II, gave way to something new, remains up for debate.
After all, it could just be a delegation of the disgruntled - united in opposition to US trade policy but still deeply divided when it comes to their own interests.
"I think it is less the case that we are seeing the emergence of a new world order, than that we are witnessing the demise of the previous one," said Katie Stallard, author of Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea.
Nevertheless, there are long term trends here that herald big change - at a time when the transatlantic alliance that underpinned the post-war security landscape buckles under the pressure of Donald Trump’s "America First" doctrine.
And that has some weighty implications - not least for Europe.
The showcase of China’s modern military might in Beijing, complete with intercontinental nuclear missiles, robot wolves and goosestepping troops, came hot on the heels of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation event, held this year in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin.
The SCO, once dismissed, in the West at least, as a small regional grouping now comprises ten members, accounting for some 30% of global GDP.
That event was attended by some traditionally West-leaning folk, like the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who ostentatiously joked and held hands with Mr Putin.
India buys copious amounts of crude oil from Russia, keeping Moscow’s war machine oiled - for which India now faces a US-imposed tariff of 50%.
"Despite the Western boycott, China is confident in showcasing its own circle of like-minded authoritarian partners," said Alexander Davey, analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a Berlin-based thinktank.
"Importantly, even less China-friendly states such as India share a broader dissatisfaction with US actions in recent decades and with a liberal order that no longer reflects current power balances," he added.
The summit highlighted the "emergence of a non-Western regional sphere where alternative norms are beginning to take shape".
It was Chairman Xi himself who back in 2020, first said, "the East is rising, and the West is declining".
This week, he built on that sentiment declaring China’s rejuvenation "unstoppable".
China "is a great nation that will never be intimidated by any bullies," he said - not looking at anyone in particular.
Whether that comment was directed at the US or not, President Donald Trump, watching from the other side of the world, was peeved.
In a sarcastic Truth Social post Mr Trump urged China’s leader to give his "warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un as you conspire against the United States of America".
The next day in the Oval Office, where he was meeting the newly elected Polish President Karol Nawrocki, Mr Trump laboured his point.
"President Xi is a friend of mine, but I thought that the United States should have been mentioned last night during that speech because we helped China very much," he said, referring to US involvement in the war in the Pacific, against Imperialist Japan.
A lack of gratitude from other world leaders is a common bug bear for Mr Trump, judging by previous gripes about European allies not pulling their weight in NATO or his verbal attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.
However, the US President expressed admiration for the event calling is a "beautiful ceremony" and "very, very impressive".
Perhaps he was comparing it unfavourably to his own military parade held in Washington in June, where some commentators slammed the marching as "sloppy" - although it has to be said, synchronised goosestepping is traditionally a hallmark of totalitarian dictatorships that democracies don’t tend to ape.
However, was Mr Trump right on these leaders "conspiring"?
"Certainly, Xi Jinping is conspiring against the United States," said Isaac Stone Fish, CEO of Strategy Risks, a New York based consultancy firm.
"Beijing wants the United States to reduce its presence in Asia and to yield to China's dominance in the region," he added, "and Beijing is working with countries in the region and around the globe to actively undermine US power".
This isn’t a secret.
Ditching former leader Deng Xiaoping’s mantra of "hide your strength, bide your time," China’s current leader has been explicit about a desire to dilute America’s influence.
"The world wants justice, not hegemony," Mr Xi said in 2021 at the Boao Forum, Asia’s rival to Davos.
"Bossing others around," he told the forum, would not get any support.
Mr Xi returned to that theme in his speech this week, accusing other unnamed countries of "bullying behaviour".
It seemed to be a thinly veiled jibe at Mr Trump and his tariff policies.
Of course, that’s a charge also levelled against China over its own economic coercion of trading partners, regular threats to self-ruling Taiwan and China’s expansionism in the South China Sea.
Mr Xi added that the world must not return to the law of the jungle where the "strong prey on the weak".
He could have been referring to his guest Mr Putin’s full-scale invasion of a much smaller and weaker neighbouring country.
However, he was not.
It is certainly true that Western dominance of powerful multilateral institutions - like NATO, International Monetary Fund and World Bank - has also long irked these leaders as well as many from smaller countries around the world.
Over the past decade, China has been busy building up alternatives like its "Belt and Road" infrastructure development initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and of course, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
In doing so, China bills itself as the champion of the underrepresented "global south", but some developing countries remain wary of Beijing’s growing influence amid concerns over dept dependency, economic overreliance and national sovereignty.
As for the United Nations, Beijing is keen to supplant western values, like human rights, with ones that align more closely with China’s authoritarian system of governance.
In UN documents, for example, China pushes language on development, sovereignty, "win-win cooperation" and "community of a shared future for mankind".
The United States, at the same time, is stepping back from the UN. Under Mr Trump, the US pulled out of the Human Rights Council, World Health Organisation and UNESCO and slashed funding to other agencies.
In fact, it is looking increasingly likely, according to UN insiders, that the US - the UN’s biggest financial contributor - will not resume funding at all, leaving a massive hole in the UN’s regular and peacekeeping budgets.
But while the US bankrolled the UN for eighty years, it also cherry-picked the bits of the rules-based international order that suited its own interests - and ignored others.
The United States never signed up to the International Criminal Court, for example, for fear of US officials being accountable to independent legal scrutiny.
Earlier this year, the US sanctioned the ICC over its arrest warrants issued to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Sanctions were extended to Palestinian NGOs this week, for the same reason.
Similarly, the US has pointed to China’s violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) ruling over its expansion in the South China Sea. However, the US itself is not a member of UNCLOS.
China also never joined the ICC. It did sign up to UNCLOS but refused to comply with the legally-binding UNCLOS ruling.
A pick-and-choose approach to international rules on the part of big powers has bred resentment among smaller ones who want to see more accountability built into UN reform - something powerful states are likely to resist.
For now though, China appears to be leaning into the UN multilateral system, while the US leans out.
At the SCO summit this week, Mr Xi unveiled his "global governance initiative," - a vision for a multipolar world with a reformed UN at its centre.
According to a concept paper circulated by China’s mission to the UN in New York, China "will leverage the platforms provided by UN, relevant international organizations, and regional and subregional multilateral institutions to take active actions ….and contribute our thoughts and energy to reforming and improving global governance".
Attending the summit in Tianjin, the UN chief António Guterres welcomed China’s initiative telling the Chinese leader, "the support of China…is an extremely important element to preserve."
However, beyond the show of solidarity on display in Beijing and Tianjin this week, how robust are relationships between the states represented?
"There are real tensions and deep fault lines beneath the camaraderie we saw in front of the cameras," said Ms Stallard.
Kim Jong Un has long resented North Korea being treated like a junior partner by China.
He undoubtedly relished the opportunity to meet Mr Xi on a stronger footing since signing a new defence and security partnership with Russia last year and now playing an integral role in Russia’s war against Ukraine, she said.
North Korea sent troops to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine and this week, Mr Kim pledged to provide Mr Putin with whatever help he required.
Mr Putin, also a junior partner in this triumvirate of strongmen, has been buoyed by Mr Trump’s return to power, the US President’s ambivalence on support for Ukraine and of course the red-carpet treatment he rolled out on American soil, at the Alaska Summit last month.
Meanwhile, China’s leader is "unlikely to welcome the prospect of rapid advances in Mr Kim’s weapons programs, thanks to access to Russian technology and expertise, and the increasing belligerence this may drive," Ms Stallard said.
And as for China’s relationship with India, that has been strained for decades, not least over ongoing border disputes in the Himalayas and China’s economic and security alliance with India’s rival Pakistan.
Beyond a set of shared grievances, their collective ideas for the future of the world order are less obvious.
"They share a desire for a world safe for autocracy, but not a vision of the architecture and values that would bring about," Mr Stallard added.
But the demise of the post-war order, if that is what we are witnessing, is delivering serious challenges for Europe.
China continues to support Russia on the European battlefield through a steady stream of dual use technology and, like India, through its purchase of Russian oil.
On Wednesday, the EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas called for allies to work together to push back against China’s coercive economic practices and its support for Moscow, but US trade disputes make this difficult and weaken any broader alliance, Mr Davey told RTÉ News.
"At the same time, many countries see Europe as applying double standards - sanctioning Russia for its actions in Ukraine while maintaining the EU-Israel Association Agreement, despite Israel’s conduct in Gaza," he added.
"The risk is that Europe finds itself sidelined and increasingly isolated," he said.
As China sustains Russia’s war in Europe and Washington turns it back, Europe is scrambling to bolster its own self-reliance.
Next week, the European Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen will lay out the EU’s political priorities for the coming year, including strengthening the bloc’s security and defence capacity.
But as the world stage gets increasingly complex, Europe needs to be clear on what it wants, Mr Davey told RTÉ News.
"Europe must apply coherent and consistent foreign policy standards to be recognized as a moral and trusted leader that countries - especially in the global south - want to collaborate with," he said.
"Only then can Europe build a collective group of allies and move toward becoming the kind of geopolitical power Ms Kallas said is needed to confront what she called an emerging 'new world order’," he said.
Of course, a key element in all of this is the growing superpower rivalry between China and the United States.
And while China and the US appear to be squaring up politically, and even militarily, they remain intertwined economically.
Mr Trump, as he fumed about the Beijing spectacle, was keen to stress what he sees as China’s economic dependence on the United States.
"China needs us much more than we need them," he said on Wednesday, recycling a phrase he has used since the first Sino-US trade war in 2018.
Which country needs the other more is largely a "matter of opinion" said Mr Stone Fish
"But my guess is that after this calms down and leaves the news cycle," trade negotiations will go on, he said.
"I don't think this (week’s events) will torpedo that," he said.
