We are living through an age of disruption. The post-war consensus that liberal democracy, free markets, and open societies were the "only game in town" has been steadily eroded by crisis after crisis.

The 9/11 terrorist attack crushed Western hopes of a post-Cold War world united by faith in capitalism. The financial crash of 2008 exposed the fragility of globalisation's economic promises.

The refugee crisis of 2015 in Europe revealed its social strains. Then the Covid pandemic of 2020 brought globalisation to a screeching halt and reawakened the authoritarian dream of closed borders and strong states.

Add to this the escalating costs of climate change, rising inequality, a global trade war, and a cost-of-living crunch, and one begins to see why faith in democratic governments to man

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