The World in Pieces

Walter Russel Mead appears on Reading Hannah Arendt to discuss whether the post-1945 American-led liberal world order has fractured and what is replacing it as global power shifts toward the Indo-Pacific. Mead argues the old transatlantic model rested on Westernization as a global aspiration and on European centrality, both of which have eroded as non-Western powers pursue their own paths and Europe falls behind militarily, politically, and technologically. He contends that the United States’ influence remains structurally resilient, driven by capitalist innovation, though legitimacy and power are changing amid upheaval.