Donald Trump, Viktor Orban and the West’s Great Walls

Fear encourages isolation, and in the course of a few decades, Republican politicians in the United States have shifted from demanding that East Germany tear down the Berlin wall to demanding a massive wall along the US border with Mexico. Europe, too, is adding barriers to block refugees fleeing war in the Middle East. “The journey from Reagan to Trump – from tearing down walls to putting them up – says a lot about the west’s journey from confidence to fear over the past 30 years,” notes Gideon Rachman for Financial Times. Europe and North America represent less than 20 percent of the world’s population, and citizens are unsure about the benefits of immigration, trade, military interventions and other trends in globalization. Leaders in the wealthy advanced economies struggle to resolve conflict, poverty and other challenges in the Middle East, Asia or South America, and voters no longer want them to bother trying. – YaleGlobal