The collapse of the postwar order

Since 1945, several pillars of Western life have been taken as given. First, that Western armies can more or less have their way with lesser powers and that guerrilla resistance is all they can expect to face. Second, that immigration means greater cultural diversity and therefore represents a net positive for the nations on the receiving end. Third, that nearly any country can become a liberal democracy, for it is a universal good that everyone aspires to and is capable of achieving. Now, however, all these pillars of the postwar order are collapsing at once, and largely in the same theater. The American-Israeli war in Iran, the ongoing migrant crisis at Ceuta, the dismantling of Hamas’s hold on Gaza — it’s easy to imagine these are discrete events. But they aren’t. They are the load-bear