At the end of the Cold War, we in the West assumed that our values were destined to become universal. Instead, they are in danger.

THE TRIANGLE OF POWER:
Rebalancing the New World Order
by Alexander Stubb
on submission, Spring 2026
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

The forces that were supposed to bring us together—open trade, technology, information, and global financial markets—can also pull us apart. Economic interdependence does not guarantee peace. Liberal democracy is not a universal desire.

The Global West, until now led by the United States, wants to maintain the old liberal international order. The Global East, led by China, wants to change it. But the balance of power is no longer bi-polar. The ascendence of the Global South – led by a range of states from Asia, Africa, and Latin America – has created a Triangle of Power.

The Global South has the power to tip the new world order toward West or East, democracy or autocracy, free trade or state control, shared rules or none. The next few years will decide the dynamics of the new international order for the rest of the century, or at least for decades to come.

This is the 1918-, 1945- or 1989 moment of our generation. What’s certain is that the world order as we know it will be reborn. The question is what kind of order it will be—and where the values of freedom and democracy will stand within it.

In THE TRIANGLE OF POWER, Finland’s President Alexander Stubb argues that the West can only maintain its central role—and preserve the liberal world order—by adopting an approach he calls “values-based realism” in dealing with other countries and with the key challenges of our time economic, climate, and technology.

Alexander Stubb is the 13th President of the Republic of Finland, inaugurated on 1 March 2024. He has previously served as Prime Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, Trade and Europe Minister of Finland (2008-2016). He was a Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2008 and national parliament (2011-2017). He was the Chairman of the Finnish National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) from 2014 to 2016 and Vice President of the European Investment Bank (EIB) from 2017 to 2020. Stubb worked as a civil servant from 1995 to 2004 as an advisor at the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Helsinki and Brussels and in President Romano Prodi’s team at the European Commission. He was involved in the negotiations of the EU Treaties of Amsterdam, Nice and Lisbon.