By Peter Hoffman
The growing dominance of nationalist populism is remaking world order, engendering what I call a “Concert of Authoritarianism,” which aims to dismantle or distort global governance by corroding and manipulating organizations and demoralizing and disengaging those who oppose it.
Throughout the global governance sector, alarm bells are ringing with many focusing on the slashing of budgets and the inevitable harm that will result. But there is an additional dimension to this phenomenon that should not be overlooked: A generation that potentially sees no future in multilateralism. If the Concert of Authoritarianism is to be countered, it is imperative to inspire a new cohort of international affairs professionals to understand what is at stake, take up the gauntlet of resistance and imagine a different future — and notably defend and staff the United Nations.
This new transactional multipolar system, reminiscent of the 19th-century Concert of Europe, features unrestrained imperial competition and naked power grabs as well as cooperation in mutually sustaining despotism domestically and institutional deadlock internationally. The impact of the contemporary Concert is apparent in Russia’s war in Ukraine and its influence in irredentist areas in the Baltics and Eastern Europe as well as power projection in places like Syria and Mali.
Today’s Concert is also visible in China’s claims in Tibet, Xinjiang and Kashmir. Historically, the United States also cut slices of the imperial pie, such as in the Philippines and Vietnam, Cuba and Central America, and in the early-21st-century, Afghanistan and Iraq. However, this has become heightened; in just the past seven weeks, President Donald Trump’ has called for the US to own Greenland and the Panama Canal, referred to Canada as becoming a 51st state and stated his intention to “own” Gaza.
While Trump, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China sit at the center of the contemporary Concert, globally at least 80, perhaps 90 or more, states are authoritarian and contribute to and thrive in the shadow of this system. Furthermore, tech cronies are supporting the Concert, in some cases providing the informational infrastructure to this global coup.
For example, Google Maps and Apple Maps now use a Gulf of America label to denote the body of water traditionally known as the Gulf of Mexico. (Not surprisingly, Tibet has long been shown as part of China.) When Russian names appear in places that have Ukrainian ones that will be another signifier. In the coming years, how the Arctic is governed will be further indication of the Concert’s sway.
What can be done worldwide to stop this constellation from normalizing ethnic cleansing, aggression, plunder, pollution, militarism, inequality and injustice? There is only one global platform to do this: The UN. The organization has many problems — from its checkered history of being a handmaiden to great powers, as evident in the structural imbalances of the Security Council, to persistent weak capacities and poor performance in high-profile shortcomings, like an inability to protect civilians in wars and promote sustainable development. Indeed, the UN is ripe for reform.
Yet, it can draw attention to rights and responsibilities, yield some transparency and administer operations as proof-of-concept of multilateralism. Such institutional power can diminish and slow the damage of the Concert and position the organization to facilitate recovery. After all, the wave of authoritarianism cannot be vanquished in the halls of the UN as much as it can be outlasted by those who maintain them.
Thus, the question of what is to be done must also be supplemented with, who will do it? In this regard, it is vital to consider how to galvanize a new generation. In the late 1960s-early 1970s, Brazilian educator Paulo Freire published “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” to stake out a new vision of education as liberation amid worldwide struggles against colonialism and capitalism. The ascendance of the Concert of Authoritarianism underscores a similar juncture of deepening subjugation and the need for thoughtful resistance.
Opposition to the Concert will crystallize from the disillusion that a plethora of crises will be either lost in an avalanche of predation and disinformation or actively manipulated and weaponized in the service of inequality. Too often, students ask, Why should I prepare for a future when there isn’t one for me? In response, what could be called a “pedagogy of the depressed” is emerging. It acknowledges the despair that underlies this sentiment but warns that actors of injustice would like nothing more than to have their opponents depressed to the point of disengagement.
This pedagogy calls for a new generation of voices from around the world and denounces inequality. It aims to assist the movement against nationalist populist authoritarians by cultivating and maintaining the bonds of globalism divorced from its liberal foundations. Moreover, this pedagogy develops knowledge that reimagines and reinvigorates the UN to deliver a better global governance, a more just multilateralism.
The current moment is daunting but should recall that in the darkest days of World War II, when it seemed fascism would win, it was also difficult to imagine that within a handful of years a global political realignment was produced. What in the US has sometimes been called the “greatest generation” heeded the call to fight fascism and successfully joined with others to defeat it.
Now, a new generation worldwide faces a similar struggle — and, in addition to the political dimension of this fight, young people will need to become the knowledge-producers and practitioners to sustain the next generation of global governance. So, while many of us are preoccupied with the day-to-day battle against the Concert of Authoritarianism, we cannot lose sight of the need to invest in reinforcements to train a new cohort of global governance champions.
Today’s depressed are tomorrow’s vanguard, and they will be the ones who will defend globalism and global governance to conquer the Concert of Authoritarianism.
This is an opinion essay.
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