Quote of the Day (Simon Kuper, on ‘The Little West’)

“[T]he the last meaningful multinational alliance [is] a ‘Little West’ consisting of Europe, including Brexit Britain but minus Hungary, plus Canada. The Little West is a herbivorous but surprisingly solid bloc, terrified into co-operation by outside threats….The Little West has an ideology of sorts, probably shared by a slight majority of its citizens: democracy, individual freedoms and nostalgia for the old order. The other powers have no belief system beyond an all-purpose aggressive nationalism. China's Communist party isn't communist, and Russian and American action bounces around according to the personal whims of Vladimir Putin and [Donald] Trump.”— Columnist Simon Kuper, “A New World Disorder,” The Financial Times, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2026