The World in 2025 with Robert Kaplan: Finding A Way Through Permanent Crisis (Part Two)

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Apr 8, 2025

Join Robert Kaplan, a geopolitical expert and bestselling author, as he navigates the turbulent waters of global instability. He draws intriguing parallels between today's crises and the Weimar Republic, stressing the importance of historical context. Kaplan argues for prioritizing order and historic liberalism over mass democracy to combat the chaotic future ahead. The discussion spans the dynamics between the U.S., China, and India, the risks of polarization in American politics, and insights on military policy amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

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INSIGHT

Liberalism and Hope

Historic liberalism, with its emphasis on uncertainty and openness, offers hope amidst modern challenges.
A potential democratic transition in Iran, given its demographics and development, could be a positive surprise.

ADVICE

Embracing Liberalism

Embrace historic liberalism, which emphasizes moderation and openness to different perspectives.
Avoid blind faith in ideologies, as they prevent independent thinking.

INSIGHT

Tech Titans and Power

Modern tech titans, like past robber barons, represent a collusion of money and power.
Trump's inauguration with tech leaders symbolizes this intense intersection, exceeding historical norms.

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We are entering a new era of global instability. The world is facing an era of war, climate change, great power rivalry and unprecedented technological advancement. In April 2025, geopolitical expert and bestselling author Robert Kaplan came to Intelligence Squared to analyse where the world is heading in 2025 and beyond. Drawing from the themes of his new book Waste Land, he argued that history can help guide us through a world that is changing at an unprecedented pace.

Kaplan drew comparisons between today’s challenges and the Weimar Republic, the post-World War I democratic German government that arguably paved the way for Nazism in the 1930s. Just as in Weimar, which faced crises inextricably bound up with global systems, the singular dilemmas of the twenty-first century—pandemic disease, recession, mass migration, the destabilizing effects of large-scale democracy and great power conflicts, and the intimate bonds created by technology—mean that every national disaster has the potential to become a global crisis, too. According to Kaplan, solutions lie in prioritising order in governing systems, and he will argue that stability and historic liberalism rather than mass democracy will save global populations from a chaotic future.

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