The Defeat of the West

A new prophecy is put forward by researcher Emmanuel Todd, who famously predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union as early as 1976. With his characteristic intellectual boldness, Todd examines the devastating social, demographic, and cultural crises shaking the United States and European countries. He exposes the failure of the liberal values upon which Western societies were built, in the face of the rise of right-wing extremism and conservative, traditional powers such as Russia and China. From the repercussions of the Russian–Ukrainian war to the escalation of military confrontations in the Middle East, Todd presents a portrait of a new global order in the making—one in which the West faces existential challenges that threaten the stability of humanity as a whole. This is an essential book for understanding the profound crisis confronting the West and its impact on the entire world. In a brilliant analytical style, the author explores the transformations unfolding in Europe and the United States on cultural, political, and social levels. He predicts the fall—or at least the prolonged decline—of old powers due to the erosion of moral, religious, and even liberal values in Europe and America. He also analyzes Europe’s growing stagnation and its transformation into a subordinate follower of the United States. In the opening chapters, the author examines Russian and Ukrainian societies, their anthropological structures, and the pivotal reasons that led to the Russia–Ukraine war. He then discusses the passivity of European states, their submission, and their transformation into ineffective followers in this crisis and others. The book concludes with an analysis of the United States and its moral, social, and ethical decline—exported to Europe—and finally addresses the rise of new powers such as China, Russia, and others in the Middle East: forces that have grown weary of American violence and bullying.