Led by Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, Disrupters Rise Globally - Gerald Seib, WSJ
We are living in an age of technological disruption, so it figures that the most important trend in international politics is the rise of disrupters around the globe. Last week’s ascension of Boris Johnson—notorious bad boy, mocker of the system that produced him, the man as responsible as anyone for tearing the bonds holding together the European Union—to become Britain’s prime minister merely extends this trend. Mr. Trump is, of course, the disrupter-in-chief, the most prominent leader to rise to power by proudly taking a wrecking ball to the prevailing political system. But he wasn’t the first, nor will he be the last.
In addition to Mr. Johnson, a partial list of fellow disrupters includes Narendra Modi in India, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Imran Khan in Pakistan, Emmanuel Macron in France, Pedro Sanchez in Spain, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister of Italy. What unites the disrupters isn’t some shared ideology. They come from across the traditional left-right spectrum. Most are populists and nationalists, though those labels don’t apply to France’s Mr. Macron, who considers himself an anti-populist. Instead, what unites the disrupters is an ability to capitalize on the grievances of their populations and the perceived failures of the traditional political system.
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Certainly the rise of the disrupters is tied to fears of economic globalization. The idea that the world is blending into one giant economy alarms workers who fear they have been thrown into a cutthroat, winner-take-all economic competition in which blurry borders and mass migration are obliterating economic security and driving down living standards. The rise of new technologies exacerbates such fears, leaving many citizens fearing they are being left behind, unprotected, if they can’t keep up with the pace of change. Certainly, Mr. Trump rode such anxieties to power, as did Britain’s Mr. Johnson.
Rising concerns about economic globalization, in turn, are feeding the rise of nationalism. Increasingly citizens are looking for assurances that they can at least rely on traditional cultural, racial and ethnic bonds to protect them from the rest of the world—and strong borders to keep that world at bay. Thus, India has turned the reins over to Mr. Modi, who is such an ardent Hindu nationalist that, not so long ago, he was denied a visa to visit the U.S. because of his role in anti-Muslim rioting.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/led-by-donald-trump-and-boris-johnson-disrupters-rise-globally-11564407579 (paid subscription)
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