Peace on Earth? Democracy everywhere?

Democracy is in retreat or at least on the defensive almost everywhere, while wars are getting bigger and more frequent.

- Gwynne Dyer

The trend lines are frighteningly bad.There are big wars in Ukraine and Sudan and another one is only on temporary hold in Gaza. Smaller wars are underway in Yemen, Myanmar, and Thailand/Cambodia, and a larger and nastier one will start if the United States attacks Venezuela. It hasn’t been this bad for a long time.

Similarly with politics: the biggest countries are already controlled by authoritarian populists (India and the United States) or outright dictators (Russia and China). Britain, France, Germany and Brazil could also easily fall into populist hands at the next election. All those regimes except China and India would deny climate change, so disaster would accelerate.

We can’t wish this all away by ‘putting it in perspective’. The risks are real and the problems are urgent. But they are all problems caused by human behaviour, which means that human beings can fix them.

Start with the perceived decline of democracy, which most people see as a recent and fragile system. It is nothing of the sort. Democracy is actually the innovation that made us fully human.