The demand side of our new political reality

STOCKHOLM – Proliferating wars and shaky alliances are hallmarks of today’s brutal new political reality, one that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. But the geopolitical rupture currently underway is no accident of history, nor is it simply the result of strongmen, weak institutions, or a sudden loss of restraint. It mirrors something more fundamental: the social soil of our societies. Politics does not occur in a vacuum. It grows out of lived experience, reflecting whether people feel secure, respected, and optimistic about a shared future. For years, political volatility has been treated as a series of external shocks. But today’s reality is the culmination of choices made over many decades. Like all political shifts, this one has a supply side and a demand side. Yet most commentaries on the new world disorder focus disproportionately on the supply side: authoritarian leaders and new doctrines, blocs, or geopolitical arrangements that might replace liberal democracy and the rules-based international order. While important, this perspective ignores the demand that is dr

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