In the end, for the end has surely come, it was just a blip. The Liberal Order which governed our lives, the lives of our parents, and the lives of our children, is over. Donald Trump’s return to power marks its passing.

And if the end of one era has come, then surely the only logical question to ask is: what next?

First, let’s establish what we’ve lost, and whether what’s gone is really worth the mourning. Historians call it the "liberal international order": the rules-based system that grew up in the shadow of American power from 1945.

Its tenets – at least for those at the top table in the West – were political liberalism, free trade, human rights, security cooperation, spreading democracy, and the rule of law. Its pillars were the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund.

Its principle antagonist was the Soviet Union, until the fall of communism. It broke the globe into two halves: democracy on one side, dictatorship on the other.

East German border guards are seen through a gap in the Berlin Wall after demonstrators pulled down a segment at Brandenburg Gate on November 11, 1989, heralding the fall of communism (Image: PA)

In its best years, between 1945 and the late 1970s, the liberal order created what came to be known as "the post-war consensus". In nations like Britain that meant some public ownership of key industries, regulation of markets, a welfare state, and relatively fair taxation.

Thatcherism and Reaganomics killed the post-war consensus and we drifted into neoliberalism and globalisation: outsourcing jobs to the cheapest overseas provider, cuts to the welfare state, mass privatisation, deregulation, and rising income inequality.

It would be these years which established the rot. Without the economic policies of the 1980s, there would be no populism, no Trump.

For the last half of the 20th century, each generation could expect better financial prospects than the previous. That ended. The 21st century isn’t like that. The demise of such opportunities brought understandable anger and voter despair at the political establishment. It led inexorably to here, to a world where Donald Trump is the most powerful person on Earth.

Thousands of Donald Trump supporters storm the United States Capitol building following a Stop the Steal rally on January 06, 2021 (Image: Getty)

Is it worth mourning the liberal order? We need to be honest and say that it really only benefited those of us in the West, and........

© Herald Scotland