The Man Warning The West: Trump Is Changing The World Behind The Scenes!

Steven Bartlett (0:00)

There's mention of Greenland being invaded by the United States. There's the situation in Iran. Trump has snatched Maduro from Venezuela. There's talk of China taking back Taiwan. What the hell is going on?

Konstantin Kisin (0:11)

Well, what you're seeing is the West becoming weaker and emboldening our enemies, and the final collapse of a shared myth that we were living in a structured world where everything is done according to the rules. That is now gone, and Trump is acting in recognition of that reality, saying, we are not going to play by the fake rules anymore. That no one else is playing by anyway.

Steven Bartlett (0:31)

Is there a risk with this strategy?

Konstantin Kisin (0:33)

Of course. And we can talk about the reasons for it. I think it's really important.

Steven Bartlett (0:36)

The floor is yours.

SPEAKER_3 (0:37)

Konstantin Kisin is one of the sharpest voices in political commentary right now.

SPEAKER_4 (0:43)

He's here to unpack the current geopolitical landscape and what could be done to salvage the West before it's too late.

Konstantin Kisin (0:49)

So Russia invading Ukraine was not an accident. It was a consequence of the fact that Putin felt this was the moment to test the waters. Can we now do the things we've always wanted to do? Because the West lost its focus and sense of purpose. So for example, I don't know if you know this, Europe is 12% of the world's population, 25% of the world's GDP, and 60% of the world's welfare spending. Germany destroyed its nuclear facilities, thereby making itself reliant on Russian gas. In Britain, we've destroyed our manufacturing, which is now produced elsewhere, and we've run down our armed forces because we have felt so safe and so comfortable because there's been no consequence. Well, the consequences are here.

Per person, we have less money today than we did 20 years ago. We have the highest tax burden in peacetime history. We're driving out the entrepreneurs and we've already seen a decline in our power in the world and our influence in the world. That's the big danger. But there is an opportunity to turn things around if we can make these big decisions.

Steven Bartlett (1:43)

Better you hope for.

There is so much going on in the world right now that it is incredibly confusing to somebody like me who doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about geopolitics or the bigger picture. I'm very, very headstanders. I imagine a lot of people in my audience are. We kind of get on with our lives, but every time we look up at the news, there's Trump has snatched Maduro from Venezuela. There's the war with Russia and Ukraine. There's something going on with Iran. There's mention of Greenland being invaded by the United States. There's talk of China taking back Taiwan. I wanted to speak to you today to understand your perspective on the bigger picture here. What the hell is going on?

Konstantin Kisin (2:35)

Well, what you're seeing is the final collapse of what people described as the post-World War II order, which then became the post-Soviet collapse order. So if you think about 1945, World War II finishes and the Cold War begins.

So you go from World War II to two big major players in the world competing for dominance. And that lasts until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapses, at which point you get the unipolar world, in which there's only one hegemony, only one country that's really setting the terms of what's happening in the world. The West lost its focus and its sense of purpose in 1991, because we were like, well, we defeated our great rival, Communism, Soviet, Russia, etc. And then we kind of didn't really know what to do. And we took our eye off the ball. And what's happening now is that entire framework that we have had since World War II is disintegrating very rapidly. This is why, in light of recent events and the Maduro situation, you hear a lot of people talk about international law. International law was, I don't know if you've ever had, you will know Harari on your show.

Steven Bartlett (3:46)

I have, yeah.

Konstantin Kisin (3:47)

You wrote a book called Sapiens, in which he talks about the fact that almost everything that we live in, the world in which we exist, is a kind of shared myth that we have. And laws and money and all these things, they are agreements that we have between us to make things real that are not real. Money isn't real. That piece of paper has no value in your pocket, really. Outside of the fact that other people have got together and agreed that it's money. Well, international law really was that, but even weaker than that. Because if you think about what a law is, a law is something that has to be backed by not only the consent of the people who are involved, but also ultimately it's about the use of force, the legitimate use of force. Now for international law, there's never been anything that could enforce that law other than the most powerful country in the world.