Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen: The Fall of Illusions and the New World Order

Trump's Greenland ambitions, Xi Jinping's AI race, Putin's war in Ukraine, and global military buildup - what connects them? Political science professor Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen sees them all as symptoms of the same fundamental shift in the international order, driven by a mindset we have yet to learn to read.

The era of globalization and the liberal world order belong to the past. This leaves Western politicians and citizens with an outdated compass in a geopolitics that demands new points of orientation.

In the book "The Fall of Illusions", Vedby Rasmussen maps the forces shaping the new world: demographics, technology, military buildup, and the strategies and self-images of the great powers. The book challenges established assumptions and argues that it is still possible to build a better society - even in a more dangerous world.

Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen (born 1973) is a professor at the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen and former department head. He has led the Ministry of Defence's development secretariat and has written several books on war, crises, and security policy.