Find Prospect's full January 2017 issue here
For anyone with half an interest in current affairs, this holiday season is sorely needed—a chance to take stock, reflect and perhaps sink a stiff drink, after 12 tumultuous months. In 2016 both Brexit and President Donald Trump have moved from the realm of the unthinkable to being imminent realities. Prime Ministers in London and Rome have tumbled, and—on the strength of Chris Bickerton’s magisterial survey—many more European dominoes could soon fall.
A generation ago, amid the Soviet collapse, Francis Fukuyama wrote about the “end of history,” the seemingly unstoppable march of US-style liberal democracy. Well today, history is having its revenge. The broken economics exposed in 2008 has finally spilled over into the electoral realm, and created chaos in its wake. As Fukuyama himself writes, the “democratic” half of liberal democracy is rejecting the “liberal” half. That rift at the heart of a system which, not so long ago, was seen as all-conquering is something several articles in this issue explore. Fukuyama suggests that the consequences could in time prove to be as momentous as those of the crumbling of Communism.
So where’s it all going? Are we racing towards a nasty world of rival nationalisms, or descending into a nihilism without any rules? Or, if we allow ourselves a little seasonal cheer, could it just be that we’re simply throwing off a failed way of governing, and that all of 2016’s destruction will eventually prove its creative worth? As Trump surrounds himself with chauvinist hardmen, that last interpretation sounds decidedly hopeful. But it’s difficult to be categoric, when reading the tea leaves has become such a hazardous business.
A surer way to get a bit of perspective is to take the long view. 2017 is the centenary of the Russian Revolution, but—in a sparkling, globe-circling essay—Adam Tooze explains why the more enduring significance of 1917 is as the start of “the American century.” He and Fukuyama agree that Trump’s aggressive insularity draws a final line under this. If it’s game over for the order which the world has—for better or worse—been living under since Woodrow Wilson that poses immediate dilemmas for Britain, and its “special relationship” pretensions, which Peter Tatchell and Malcolm Rifkind thrash out. But the wider retreat behind national borders also asks searching questions about Europe’s capacity to reform. We brought players from both sides of the Channel together to discuss how the UK and the continent can hope to get along in these dark days of drawbridges being pulled up (report here).
But don’t presume that all hopes for solidarity across countries are lost. In the dying days of this electric shock of a year, the cause of internationalism demonstrated a few flickers of life. Theresa May belatedly conceded to let parliament in on her Brexit plan, and that could yet prove more important than her symbolic triumph on the timetable. In one London by-election, voters rejected the government’s insular post-referendum turn. Meanwhile, the Austrians snubbed a wannabe President from a party founded by Nazis. Happy New Year!
For anyone with half an interest in current affairs, this holiday season is sorely needed—a chance to take stock, reflect and perhaps sink a stiff drink, after 12 tumultuous months. In 2016 both Brexit and President Donald Trump have moved from the realm of the unthinkable to being imminent realities. Prime Ministers in London and Rome have tumbled, and—on the strength of Chris Bickerton’s magisterial survey—many more European dominoes could soon fall.
A generation ago, amid the Soviet collapse, Francis Fukuyama wrote about the “end of history,” the seemingly unstoppable march of US-style liberal democracy. Well today, history is having its revenge. The broken economics exposed in 2008 has finally spilled over into the electoral realm, and created chaos in its wake. As Fukuyama himself writes, the “democratic” half of liberal democracy is rejecting the “liberal” half. That rift at the heart of a system which, not so long ago, was seen as all-conquering is something several articles in this issue explore. Fukuyama suggests that the consequences could in time prove to be as momentous as those of the crumbling of Communism.
So where’s it all going? Are we racing towards a nasty world of rival nationalisms, or descending into a nihilism without any rules? Or, if we allow ourselves a little seasonal cheer, could it just be that we’re simply throwing off a failed way of governing, and that all of 2016’s destruction will eventually prove its creative worth? As Trump surrounds himself with chauvinist hardmen, that last interpretation sounds decidedly hopeful. But it’s difficult to be categoric, when reading the tea leaves has become such a hazardous business.
A surer way to get a bit of perspective is to take the long view. 2017 is the centenary of the Russian Revolution, but—in a sparkling, globe-circling essay—Adam Tooze explains why the more enduring significance of 1917 is as the start of “the American century.” He and Fukuyama agree that Trump’s aggressive insularity draws a final line under this. If it’s game over for the order which the world has—for better or worse—been living under since Woodrow Wilson that poses immediate dilemmas for Britain, and its “special relationship” pretensions, which Peter Tatchell and Malcolm Rifkind thrash out. But the wider retreat behind national borders also asks searching questions about Europe’s capacity to reform. We brought players from both sides of the Channel together to discuss how the UK and the continent can hope to get along in these dark days of drawbridges being pulled up (report here).
But don’t presume that all hopes for solidarity across countries are lost. In the dying days of this electric shock of a year, the cause of internationalism demonstrated a few flickers of life. Theresa May belatedly conceded to let parliament in on her Brexit plan, and that could yet prove more important than her symbolic triumph on the timetable. In one London by-election, voters rejected the government’s insular post-referendum turn. Meanwhile, the Austrians snubbed a wannabe President from a party founded by Nazis. Happy New Year!
