Summary This speculative article explores the economic and ethical aspects of inequality in the new post‐cold war world and the relations of domination required to reproduce them in the context of a more general theory of exploitation. Some of the factors affecting international inequality and economic power in the post‐war period are described and analysed. These are examined from the perspective of income distribution; poverty; growth and convergence; natural resources; human resources and productive knowledge; institutions; accumulation, distribution and exploitation; markets; status exploitation and gender. The conclusion is that the new world order lacks both moral legitimacy and democratic institutions to govern the world economy. In this context, the evolving relations of domination and exploitation which reproduce the levels of inequality described may end up producing a new world disorder.