The Lost Peace

We won the Cold War. But economic, strategic and political naivety has paved the way for a new threatening world order over three decades with instability, energy crises, endless conflict in the Middle East and authoritarian superpowers like Russia and China. Henrik Dahl, author and leading politician, challenges the elites of the West in his new book The West‘s Elites. He identifies four key areas where we failed: in our relationship with Russia, which was underestimated and misunderstood after the collapse of the Soviet Union; in the naive belief that economic integration alone would lead to democratization in China; in the Middle East, where Western idealism has met an Islamic wall; and in the underestimation of energy as a geopolitical weapon, especially in Europe. We won the Cold War - but lost peace. HENRIK DAHL (b. 1960) is a member of the European Parliament and former member of the Danish Parliament for the Liberal Alliance (2015-2024). He is a trained sociologist and has worked as a writer, debater and social analyst for many years. His books include At the Adult Table (2022) and The Social Construction of Unreality (2020). He has received both the Rosenkjær Prize and the Columbus Prize for his work. Henrik Dahl lives in Copenhagen and Brussels.