Gideon Rachman explores the spread of leadership cults, polarised politics and urban-rural divisions in order to understand the rise of 'strongmen' and a new global nationalism
In The Age of the Strongman, Gideon Rachman finds global coherence in the chaos of the new nationalism, leadership cults and the climate of liberal antipathy.
We are in a new era- the age of the strongman. Authoritarian leaders have become a central feature of global politics. Over the last decade, self-styled 'strongmen' have risen to power in capitals as diverse as Moscow, Delhi, Tokyo, Brasilia, Budapest, Rome, Ankara, Cairo, Riyadh and Manila. This trend began well before the EU referendum or Donald Trump's presidency and will continue regardless of the outcomes of impeachment or Brexit. There is no going back to the world that existed before 2016.
When and where did this change take place? How long will this period last? And how likely is it to lead the world into war, economic collapse or unchecked environmental disaster? This is a story in three acts- the rise of the strongmen; the liberal fightback; and the probable consequences of the strongman era.
From Trump, Putin and Bolsonaro, Erdogan, Xi and Modi, to the opposition of Merkel, Macron and Corbyn, Arden, Soros and Sanders, Rachman pays full attention to the strongman phenomenon in countries that are too often eclipsed, uncovers a complex interaction between rising Asian powers and a declining West, where very different reasons explain growing nationalisms.
The Age of the Strongman finds the common themes in our local nightmares and offers a bold new paradigm for understanding our world; whilst others have tried to understand these situations individually, Gideon Rachman's will be the first truly global treatment of the new nationalism, underpinned by an exceptional level of access to world leaders and key actors in this drama.
