What brought the US to the brink of authoritarianism. Five geopolitical questions that political leaders must address and which of them are on Trump’s winning side. The power and influence of social media imagery. The idea of ‘field theory’.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
ARTICLE OF THE WEEK
Lisa Lerer, America Hires a Strongman
(The New York Times, 7 November 2024)
Donald Trump told Americans exactly what he planned to do (like abandoning US allies abroad, turning the government into a tool of his own grievances, firing thousands of career public servants, deporting millions of immigrants, and so on), and when asked to give him the power to do all of that, the voters said yes, decisively. Now, argues the NYT national political reformer, America stands on the precipice of an authoritarian style of governance never seen in its 248-year history. Read on to understand why (gifted article, reads in 6-7 min).
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Samir Saran, 5 geopolitical questions for 2025
(WEF, 1 November 2024)
At a time when the post-war international order is disintegrating, the President of the Observer Research Foundation argues that the rise of three different dynamics will affect leaders’ decision-making. (1) Seemingly irrational responses among their constituents and counterparts, caused by deepening polarization and rising levels of misinformation. (2) Inconsistency, caused by growing acceptance of double standards. (3 Influential voices bent on upending the status quo. In the light of this, leaders will have to answer five questions outlined in the article (free access, 7-9 min).
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Henry Meyer, World Leaders: Who Wins and Who Loses From Trump’s Return
(Bloomberg, 6 November 2024)
Connected to the above. The very transactional nature of Donald Trump’s first presidency showed that he ranks leaders based on their perceived strengths and weaknesses, and his personal taste. In the end, how everyone fits into his orbit will come down to who ingratiates themselves and what was the nature of their previous relationship. Based on this, the winners: Benjamin Netanyahu, Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, Mohammed bin Salman, Giorgia Meloni, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kim Jong Un, Viktor Orban, Javier Milei. The losers: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Masoud Pezeshkian, Xi Jinping, Shigeru Ishiba, Claudia Sheinbaum, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Olaf Scholz (gifted article, 5-7 min).
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Amanda Ruggeri, How online photos and videos alter the way you think
(BBC Futures, 4 November 2024)
There is plenty of scientific evidence to prove that the images we are exposed to on social media and internet websites have a surprising influence on the way we view the world. “The more biased images AI models themselves spit out, the more we see; the more we see, the more implicitly biased we become ourselves” (free access, reads in 4-6 min).
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Daniel McShea and Gunnar Babcock, Elusive but everywhere
(AEON, 4 November 2025)
Not an easy read but a stimulating one. Everything in the Universe, from wandering turtles to falling rocks, is surrounded by ‘fields’ that guide and direct movement. These fields, in particular those that guide living beings, are often elusive, invisible and intangible, wielding a mysterious power not yet fully understand. Currently, there are seemingly only two ways of explaining this: through teleology or mechanism. But both are troublesome and inadequate, explain the two scientists who offer the idea of “field theory” as a third unifying explanation. It helps answer one of the oldest problems in philosophy and science: why do things in the Universe appear to have goals or purposes? (metered paywall, around 10 min).
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