
In "The Retreat of Western Liberalism," Edward Luce dissects democracy's global decline with razor-sharp insight. Mark Beeson calls it essential for understanding populism's rise. What happens when economic growth falters? This 2017 analysis predicted our fractured political landscape with eerie precision.
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What does it feel like to stand on the right side of history? In November 1989, a young Oxford student raced toward Berlin with thousands of others, champagne in hand, chipping away at concrete that had divided a continent. The Cold War was ending. Liberal democracy had won. The future felt limitless. Fast-forward three decades: that same person found himself in Moscow after Trump's election, attending a conference celebrating the "polycentric world order"-diplomatic code for a post-American world. While we danced on Berlin's rubble, Vladimir Putin watched his world crumble from his KGB office in Dresden. Now he was celebrating. Something had gone terribly wrong with the story we told ourselves about progress, democracy, and the inevitable march of history.
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