The world is in a paradox.
In many ways, people have never had it better. At least in the West.
At the same time, we are surrounded by war, climate threats and dystopian future prospects.
Three men hold the world in a stranglehold while the rest of us helplessly watch.
Quick version
The optimism and faith in the future that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union two years later have been blown away.
Global cooperation and the regulatory framework that has been built up over the past half century are about to be destroyed.
Behind the threat to our prosperity and the functioning of the world order are three powerful men who are driving us towards the abyss.
Now it has been revealed that Donald Trump has withdrawn a heavy climate report and replaced it with one from five scientists who deny climate change. They even claim that the atmosphere is doing well with more carbon dioxide.
Of all that Trump has done so far during his more than six months in power, nothing is likely to have greater significance in the long run than the total reversal in climate policy.
It is "drill, baby drill" that applies. Green investments are being thrown into the trash and Trump wants to burn more oil and gas instead.
Not only that. He wants to force the rest of the world to do the same. In almost all the trade agreements Trump has reached, countries agree to buy American oil and gas. The EU has promised to trade for $750 billion.
Trump's latests move is to use tariffs and other measures to punish countries that invest in wind and solar energy.
Countries are "destroying themselves" with wind power, according to Trump.
-I hope they return to fossil fuels.
The policy risks accelerating the trend towards more extreme weather and poorer opportunities to feed a growing global population.
The president's policy goes against what almost all scientists believe. Yet Trump claims that he knows best.
The United States is one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases. Without the United States on board, it will be very difficult for the world to achieve any climate goals at all.
Trump is creating chaos and uncertainty in many areas, but nothing affects us all as much as the dismantling of climate work.
During his 25 years in power, Vladimir Putin has slowly transformed Russia from a young and fragile democracy into a rock-hard dictatorship. With the good help of Russian voters who chose stability over freedom. Now it is too late to turn back.
The slightest sign of opposition results in long prison sentences. No one dares to challenge Putin anymore.
At the same time, he has revived the nationaiist dream of restoring Russia's greatness and recreating the Soviet Union in a new guise.
The foundation of that dream is to take over Ukraine. With his war of aggression, he has managed to capture a fifth of the country at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dead Russian soldiers. In return, he has forced Ukraine to pay a high price and is threatening the West with Russian nuclear weapons.
Europe has been reluctantly forced to leave its peace bubble. Instead of building for a peaceful future, the continent is now being forced to arm itself to the teeth to meet the threat from Russia.
It feels like a terrible waste.
All because of one man's lust for power.
China has gone from the hope of democratic development at Tiananmen Square in 1989 to a rock-solid dictatorship where leader Xi Jinping has ensured that he can serve for life if he wants.
Xi Jinping is carrying his own great power dream. China is to overtake the United States as the world's superpower. He is building very long-term with a combination of carrot and stick.
The new Silk Road, which will make it easy for China to trade with many countries and get the raw materials it needs, is a cornerstone.
China is facing fierce upposition from the United States, which wants to slow down China's path to superpower status. To counter this, Xi has allied himself with Putin. Together, the two want to build a new world order in which Western values such as freedom and democracy are no longer the guiding principles but the right of the strong.
China is acting increasingly aggressively towards its neighbors and the United States in the South China Sea. It is trying to scare away countries that oppose China's enormous territorial claims, where almost the entire sea is Chinese.
On top of that, it wants to devour the self-governing democracy of Taiwan, which Xi claims belongs to mainland China. Without Taiwan, China cannot regain its rightful great power position, Xi believes. A line of reasoning that is very reminiscent of Putin's thinking regarding Ukraine.
Trump, 79, Putin, 72, and Xi, 72, are all older men. They are in a hurry to implement their plans. Many experts say 2027 is a likely date for China to invade Taiwan. This would likely trigger a direct military confrontation with the United States.
There are other leaders who also play a destructive role globally. Thanks to Putin, for example, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has managed to break his international isolation. He will appear next week with Putin and Xi Jinping at the anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II in Beijing.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a democratically elected leader who is stoking one of the world's worst crises simply because he does not want to relinquish power.
Netanyahu, Kim Jong-un and others are still minor characters in the really big global game where it is Putin, Xi and Trump who are fighting for world domination while the vast majority of the world's population feels fear and anxiety and wants to go a different path.
Inga kommentarer:
Skicka en kommentar