Book Talk: The End of the Old Order
“The old world is dying, the new world struggles to be born,” wrote the Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci at the end of World War I. “Now is the time of monsters.” A witness to the rise of fascism in Italy, Gramsci understood transitions can be dangerous. The world today is at a similar inflection point. With Donald Trump victorious in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Western liberal order presided by the US since the end of the Second World War is over.
How will America, Europe and the rest of the world manage this inflection point, including Trump’s tariff war? These questions are addressed by eminent strategic forecasters, Josef Braml, in his new book “World to Come – The Return of Trump and the End of the Old Order”. Mark Episkopos, research fellow in the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute, discussed the book and its conclusions with the author.
Program
Entities
Panelists
Josef Braml
Josef Braml has been since 2020 Secretary General of the German Group and since January 2023 European Director at the Trilateral Commission. From 2006 to 2020, he worked at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) as Managing Editor and Editor of the International Policy Yearbook and Head of the Americas Programme. Previously, he was a research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, SWP (2002-2006), project director at the Aspen Institute Berlin (2001), visiting scholar at the German-American Center (2000), consultant at the World Bank (1999) and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.
Mark Episkopos
Mark Episkopos is a research fellow in the Quincy Institute’s Eurasia Program. He is also an Adjunct Professor of History at Marymount University. Episkopos holds a PhD in history from American University and a masters degree in international affairs from Boston University. His research focuses on great power competition and the international system, the transatlantic relationship, Russian foreign policy, military thought and capabilities, and domestic politics, and issues in Eastern European security. Episkopos was previously the National Security Reporter for The National Interest, where he wrote widely on military and foreign affairs topics.