On Some Geopolitical and Societal Tendencies Threatening Peace and Stability

Abstract Today’s world is less stable than the Cold War international system. Why the high expectations for a peaceful world that existed thirty years ago didn’t materialize? This article singles out two interrelated trends that stem from mistakes made when it seemed that the humanity, having learned from history, was stepping into a period of the “end of history”. However, this end of history mindset forms the very basis on which today’s negative tendencies are flourishing. The triumphant West tried not only to unify the whole world under a single leadership but to make it also uniform. Yet, the world is simply too big, complex and diverse to have its rich tapestry flattened into a carpet where only one pattern, be it a Judeo-Christian, Anglo-Saxon, Confucian, Muslim or secular liberal-democratic, dominates. Therefore, after a short unipolar moment, those States that couldn’t or didn’t want to follow Washington, began to claim their own place under the Sun and the right to go their own way. As long as it is not recognized that there is an intrinsic value not only in bio-diversity or in the acceptance of diverse ways of life within a society, but also in the existence of diverse political systems, economic models and societal arrangements, there will not be even a relative peace in the world. Equally, recognition and acceptance of balance of power in international relations is even more important than the adherence to the principle of separation of powers within States. The second trend is expressed in conflicts between elites and masses, whose grievances are exploited by populists. Moreover, the idea that globalisation would lead, if not to the disappearance of the State, then at least to a considerable shrinking of its role, turned out to be wrong.