“The order is rapidly fadin’” – Bob Dylan

MANY CONVERSATIONS THESE days start with an understandable despondency that the world appears to be spinning out of control.

There is a risk of allowing ourselves, faced by increasingly topsy-turvy and threatening developments, either to throw up our hands or, worse, to throw in the towel. However, we would be foolish to conclude, just because it is difficult to make sense of global events, that we are powerless to confront them — either as individuals or as a country.

It is true that many of the alliances and relationships between countries that we have long taken for granted are splintering. Multilateral institutions and norms that, with all their imperfections, have provided significant stability for generations are being undermined. The sense of morality in international behaviour is being widely junked. To borrow Bob Dylan’s words, “the order is rapidly fadin’.”

The most dramatic change can be seen in the United States, where President Trump‘s Presidency represents a moral vacuum. It’s not that his country, or indeed any country, has ever been a paragon of virtue. However, Trump’s virulent disrespect for American democracy and his indifference to support for democracy abroad are truly dislocating. If he has any moral compass, it points not towards helping those who deserve support, at home and abroad, but towards his own family’s bank accounts.

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Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine represents another assault on international stability, as well as a wider threat to the European democracies that Putin despises. Russia’s relentless........

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