This book is a summary and critique of several well-known experts in the theory of a multipolar world. I will begin with The Changing World Order, the economic thesis of Ray Dalio; then The Clash of Civilizations described by Samuel Huntington; and finally, The Fourth Political Theory by Aleksandr Dugin. I will adapt each view to our unique American Christian logos. I will also briefly critique both the positive insights and mistaken presuppositions of similar writers, such as Francis Fukuyama, Peter Zeihan, Bruno Maçães, and others throughout the book.
To better understand this book, you should read or at least be familiar with three books that I will be critiquing. I will explain enough for you to follow, but nothing is better than firsthand knowledge of the sources. The brave authors of these insightful works have been attacked and mischaracterized, have lost standing among their peers, and one has even been banned in the marketplace and targeted for assassination. Their crime was going against the grain of establishment bias. Yet their insights have proved to be startlingly prophetic. They have been stating for many years what should have been obvious to all. If their presuppositions are correct, we are likely to see their predictions unfold with even greater impact in the future. We should not be rooting for a certain side to be correct, but we should be concerned with moral and ethical principles.
Dealing With the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail (2021) by Ray Dalio is an analysis from an economic perspective. It explains the reemergence of civilization states, but relies on the pattern of the rising and falling economic cycles of the European empires over the last 500 years. Dalio argues that the “Big Cycle” has brought us to an imminent inflection point in history. He also shows how smaller cycles and trends contribute to the larger cycles.
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (1996) by Samuel P. Huntington was the first major work to advance the idea of a coming multipolar world made up of civilization states based on deep culture rather than nation-states based on artificial political ideologies. His book emphasizes a political and sociological analysis of the changes we are now seeing in the world about three decades after his writing.
The Fourth Political Theory (2009) by Aleksandr Dugin examines the same phenomena from a philosophical and spiritual perspective. Dugin’s view is the most anti-Modernist of this group and the most controversial 13 among Liberals because so much of Modernity stands against spirituality, history and tradition. As a Russian Orthodox Christian, Dugin challenges us to think deeply, to reexamine what it means to be human, and what it means to exist as a being in this world.
The three main thinkers discussed in this book contend that we are living through a tectonic quake that will radically reorder the nations. All agree we have not seen since the time of the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration and the Protestant Reformation. All of these authors are looking at the same phenomena. All agree on the role of Christianity as a positive force in civilization. All agree that we are in a time of a monumental paradigm shift.
I should state up front one important point. I do not know exactly what a Fourth Political Theory will look like as a system. I am not a prophet. I do not have any special revelation about the future. In fact, I will show the error of professional prognosticators who have been wrong in their predictions. At the same time, I value the writings of men who many years ago correctly foresaw the train of world events that have come into being even recently. This book is my attempt to align the best of their insights according to a biblical worldview.
For 2000 years, the history of Christian Liberty in the world has always progressed along a linear path with occasional setbacks and some dead ends. Today, we are seeing the story of Liberty take hold of the human spirit in all the world.
