Are we at a turning point in world history? | David Motadel

Political leaders increasingly caution that we are facing a historical inflection point'. Are we?

In 1919, at the height of a global crisis that resulted from the turmoil of the Russian Revolution, the devastation of the first world war, and the collapse of Europe's great continental empires, Irish writer William Butler Yeats penned his famed warning to humanity, mourning the end of the old world: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold / Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world."

His words were recently invoked by Joe Biden, addressing the United Nations general assembly. Today, just as then, he warned, the world is facing a critical historical juncture: I truly believe we are at another inflection point in world history where the choices we make today will determine our future for decades to come."