Smaller wars are underway in Yemen, Myanmar, and Thailand/Cambodia, and a larger and nastier one will start if the United States attacks Venezuela. Similarly with politics: the biggest countries are already controlled by authoritarian populists (India and the United States) or outright dictators (Russia and China). Start with the perceived decline of democracy, which most people see as a recent and fragile system. This, not the events in the United States and France in the late 18th century, was the true democratic revolution. But then, about two-and-a-half centuries ago, democracy re-emerged in the first societies with mass media.

Source: Bangkok Post December 29, 2025 00:14 UTC