The most profound change in global politics is not just one leader, but the US's structural shift away from its role as an upholder of the international system toward being a powerful but self-interested actor pursuing its own narrow advantages.

The 1990s belief that economic liberalization would inevitably make China democratic provided ideological cover for policies that fueled its growth. This hubris, combined with corporate greed, allowed the US to facilitate the rise of its greatest geopolitical rival without achieving the expected political reforms.

After 1991, without the Soviet Union as a counterbalancing power, US foreign policy shifted from pragmatic containment to an interventionist, 'neocon' crusade. This ideology of a 'responsibility to protect' led to costly, destabilizing 'forever wars' in the Middle East, a departure from the more measured Cold War approach.

For generations, Western societies have viewed peace and prosperity as the default state. This perception is a historical outlier, making the return to 'dog eat dog' great power politics seem shocking, when in fact it's a reversion to the historical norm of conflict.

The Western belief that free trade would cause authoritarian states like China to liberalize has proven false. Instead, this policy created a powerful manufacturing competitor whose interests diverge from the West's. The current era of deglobalization is an unwinding of this flawed foundational premise of the post-war order.

Trump's 'America First' platform was not a random occurrence but a predictable backlash against the US establishment's post-Cold War excesses. Policies like 'hyper-globalization' and 'forever wars' created domestic discontent and a loss of faith in traditional foreign policy, which Trump successfully exploited.

For decades, the US served as the aspirational model for liberal democracy. Its current internal political turmoil signals that the model is flawed, giving credibility to authoritarian alternatives and fueling global pessimism about democracy's future.

After the Soviet Union's collapse, Europe incorrectly assumed permanent peace. It divested from defense and technology, focusing on social welfare, which ultimately rendered it economically uncompetitive and geopolitically weak.

The last 80 years of a rules-based international order was an exception, not the norm. The world is reverting to its historical state of raw power politics, where nations act out of self-interest and military strength.