Recent searches
Search options
"There is no going back to the post-Cold-War liberal democratic world order. It is broken and can never be repaired. The only way forward is to select among the good pieces that remain and use them to build something new."
@evan Qualified no. Fukuyama remains correct: no one has come up with a vision of how to organise society more compelling than that of liberal democracy.
Consider Syria for instance: the new regime may not become a real liberal democracy, but it will garb itself in the trappings of one, with a president, legislature and claims of freedom.
The major change is the decreased relative economic, military and moral strength of the US.
@mpjgregoire "Global freedom declined for the 18th consecutive year in 2023. The breadth and depth of the deterioration were extensive. Political rights and civil liberties were diminished in 52 countries, while only 21 countries made improvements. Flawed elections and armed conflict contributed to the decline, endangering freedom and causing severe human suffering."
@evan One can quibble with Freedom House, but they're probably right on the trend. That said, nothing in human affairs moves monotonically forward. (Indeed, it's often better to understand phenomena in terms of cycles rather than of progress.)
It doesn't change the fact that most humans would prefer to live in a liberal democracy than some other sort of regime, and very few are even willing to say that liberal democracy is the wrong model for the state.
@mpjgregoire right, but that's not the question. It's about the world order after the end of the Cold War, with a unilateral world military power, asymmetrical economic dominance, and runaway income inequality. The question is, will the order that follows our current crisis look like that? Are we struggling to get back to, say, the Obama years? Or something different and better?
@evan We're going to have a world order that's different and worse. The unipolar moment is gone, and new military technologies are further destabilising the the balance of power. Beijing is probably learning from the war in Ukraine that offence is hard, but perhaps fighter jets and aircraft carriers are outmoded in the age of hypersonic missiles, drones and facial recognition.
We're heading towards increased military spending in general, and stronger alliances with allies who step up.
防空識別區
（mix mastering） @mpjgregoire Liberal democracy is the wrong model for the state and I would prefer to not live in a so-called liberal democracy. @evan
@mpjgregoire You mention Syria but it actually has one of the few pockets of real democracy in the Middle East that the Kurdish people have built on anarchist and feminist principles in Rojava. "Liberal democracy" has allowed for White supremacy, patriarchy and other forms of inequality, we need true democracy for everyone. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_Administration_of_North_and_East_Syria @evan