Democracy in a twilight zone

With Donald Trump's inauguration and return to the White House, we can rightly ask the question: is 20th-century geopolitics infecting the 21st century?

- IMTIAZ A HUSSAIN

Was post-Cold War neoliberalism misleading, rearming the world for wars rather than liberalising its economy? Four 1920s dynamics shaking the 2020s suggest so. They are the pandemic, populism, technological breakthroughs, and internationalising democracy. Each directly fed World War II. Will they bring us an all-out war now?

The 1918-19 Spanish Flu was not a product of Spain and the Covid pandemic was not "made in China" (as President Trump then claimed). But both followed global upheavals: Spanish Flu, World War I, Covid, the 2008-11 recession and the 2014-20 "six-year climate anomaly." All three examples show human flows shaking the environment.

World War I saw a human stew of soldiers from many countries crossing many boundaries, but also being locked up in war-trenches, where pandemics incubate; and both the Great Recession and climate changes moved people reluctantly. Viruses dormant in one setting often explode in another. They join such constantly threatening secular triggers as biotechnological advancements. When atmospheric conditions and advancing technologies combine, consciously or subconsciously, humans face a virus minefield. Tech-savvy people adapt. They globalise, push multiculturalism, and seek inclusiveness. Others resist. They become nationalistic, mono-cultural minded, and exclusive in preferences.