The West is facing an unprecedented crisis. Russia has launched a war of aggression against Ukraine — just months after the USA suffered a foreign policy debacle in Afghanistan. And China, the West’s rival in the battle for system superiority, has long since become a decisive superpower.

Yet the triumph of the West had seemed unstoppable not that long ago. After the end of the Cold War, the democratic market economy took hold in the former Eastern Bloc, Russia went from being an enemy to a partner, and even China turned to capitalism. Then came the major turning point: the terrorist attacks of 9/11 that shook the West. The American War on Terror destabilised an entire region of the world; the Arab Spring only brought forth new autocracies; and, following the annexation of Crimea, the confrontation with Russia intensified. Instead of a liberal world order, a new world disorder has emerged.

Peter R. Neumann, an internationally acclaimed expert on terrorism and geopolitics, shows how this transpired and what must happen now. He offers an unsparing critique of the current situation of the West, which has fatally overestimated itself.