With all that’s been going on in the world lately, I felt the need to express myself in a manner that is safe, controlled, and organized. While that may sound obvious, it really isn’t, not in the era of ‘fast food’ information that is sweeping the younger generations in which I belong. When it comes to learning, real learning, we have become greatly impatient, and we believe that all truth lies within the 6 inches of our smartphones, and nothing outside of that glass screen is worth our attention. Just a little introductory note, maybe not so optimistic, but definitely relevant.
I could not start this any other way than to comment on the new US presidency. Afterall, it has been dominating all headlines. And while I hate it when that happens – when a single issue dominates headlines for an extended period of time – this is not one single issue, but rather a ‘fork in the road’ as Elon Musk accurately described it, although for the opposite reasons than my own. Last time around, Donald Trump was the newcomer, with relatively few people in the US expecting he was actually going to win, and with not that many international allies. This time, Trump assumes the presidency at a time when far-right populist parties across the pond are no longer ‘on the rise’. They have risen and 6 of them are in government, with another 8 polling first or second in their respective countries.[1]
Why is that bad, many people ask? This is democracy at work, and we should respect the outcome whether we like it or not, as US vice-president JD Vance instructed during his Munich Security Conference speech.[2] While I have a plethora of arguments against that, I am not going to bite. Instead, I just want to stress that these are truly novel times, with modern technology changing the meaning and functioning of democracy. The Trump & Musk gang champions ‘free speech’ in an era where people’s opinions can and are manipulated by malicious actors using modern media with a real impact on European political life.[3][4]
‘Of course, the Russia and China argument’ many may think. Let me clarify that I do not believe Russia, China, or any other foreign nation is the ultimate culprit for the situation Europe finds itself in today. They are merely calculating actors, and their current calculations are telling them that a certain course of action is likely to yield a more preferrable result. The origins of the problem are far more complex than I can even comprehend. However, I do understand that mass migration flows from war-torn places (wars Europe helped or even today is helping create, by the way[5]) have shaken European societies. I also understand that other phenomena such as inflation, economic hardship, and inequality create the need for a scapegoat.
And while all this may sound a bit too familiar, I do believe that we are in a much better place than a century ago. Global economic intertwinement has reached a level that practically prevents any large-scale conflict, another reason why Trump’s mercantilism is ‘a very dumb idea’.[6] Nuclear weapons have changed the calculus of war forever, which is why Putin’s revisionism is even dumber. And lastly, the age of information, despite all its flaws, has given rise to groundbreaking advances in all shapes of human endeavor. People see that, and they do not want to go back. We simply need to tread ever more lightly towards the end of history.
[1] https://www.politico.eu/article/mapped-europe-far-right-government-power-politics-eu-italy-finalnd-hungary-parties-elections-polling/
[2] https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/02/18/vance-speech-munich-full-text-read-transcript-europe/
[3] https://www.ft.com/content/35f46c4b-4fc1-4c1c-a19c-91a0d30f8528
[4] https://www.csis.org/blogs/brexit-bits-bobs-and-blogs/did-russia-influence-brexit
[5] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/07/11/after-the-success-of-its-army-in-mozambique-rwanda-expects-economic-rewards_6049404_4.html
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/canada/100000010030296/trudeau-canada-tariffs-trump.html
Maximos Giannis is a 26-year-old postgraduate in finance & accounting at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, with an undergraduate degree in political science from Maastricht University.
