Both Western and non-Western states entered the post-Cold War era with false articles of faith: the West believed its liberal international order would make the world peaceful and stable by integrating nations into global markets, and China believed it would follow a communist path, but both assumptions were wrong.

Complex societies are experiencing accelerating change that is outpacing human capacity to understand and adapt, creating widespread uncertainty, anger, and desperation as people feel their voices count for nothing in systems they cannot control.

American military leaders now view the Cold War period as a 'simpler, less threatening time' compared to the current multipolar, asymmetric, hybrid-warfare environment, illustrating how much more complex and dangerous global security has become.

Globalization has been the greatest force for change in the modern world, has lifted approximately one billion people out of poverty but has also created political chaos by displacing traditional power structures and communities.

Social media and fake news have created a crisis of truth and shared reality: alternative facts go unchallenged, there is disregard for objective truth, and people increasingly inhabit separate informational universes that prevent consensus-building and democratic deliberation.

Social media has enabled terrorism and extremism at scale: ISIS and other extremist groups can now radicalize and recruit members globally through social media in ways that would have been technologically impossible 10 years ago.

Technological progress in the hyperconnected digital world is eroding fundamental principles of the Westphalian and liberal international orders as it breaks down borders, creating a fundamental misfit between the orders and contemporary conditions.

Western populations feel their power has diminished or is less than it should be, but this experience is not universal—millions of Turks, Indians, and Chinese may feel more powerful and are finally beginning to assume their rightful place on the global stage, showing how power perception varies by national position.

The West wrote the defining narratives of the last half of the 20th century starting in the 17th century with the Westphalian order and culminating in the liberal international order and globalization, a compelling vision of a democratic world living and working together based on economic and social principles believed to work.

Immigration driven by war, poverty, and displacement is creating a full-scale crisis in many regions, with desperate people fleeing their countries in search of new lives or to escape death, but many receiving countries do not want them and their arrival is fueling the rise of nationalism and populism.