Smartphones and the Internet were unexpected consequences of the Cold War. Will the new Cold War with China have a similar impact?
When in 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first satellite orbiting around the Earth, it proved that its distance from the US was no longer a problem for its rockets. In his notorious “Sputnik moment”, then US president Eisenhower realised that in order not to lag behind Russia in terms of technological progress, the government had to take an active role in pushing innovation.
An immense amount of resources was invested to boost innovation: education expenditure increased, funding…
Populism is on the rise; demands for a more equitable society are blending with confused nationalist remarks, which are threatening liberal democracies as we know them. The European Union should not fight but embrace the protest, and support the fight for social justice — otherwise radical tendencies might degenerate into authoritarianism and the European Union itself might cease to exist.
If just a few years ago someone told me of the political transformations I witnessed recently, I would have considered such predictions merely as fictious. A series of political outcomes, starting with the Brexit vote, has gradually made populism increasingly…
