The Making and Unmaking of a World Order
Interview with Rana Dasgupta about his book After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order. Traces the nation-state’s origins as a recent, anomalous invention, arguing its 200-year supremacy is now ending. Discusses how sacred empires gave way to bounded states, secular liberalism emerged as a displaced theology, and industrialisation weaponised democracy and welfare. Argues international law was designed less to prevent war than to secure property and global capitalism. Posits a return to an 18th-century norm of diverse political forms, where tech firms resemble new East India Companies, and climate change and mass migration challenge the sedentary order. Explores the modern state’s theological underpinnings, showing how God’s displacement by the state created new forms of control and identity, with current geopolitical shifts mirroring 1914 but without a clear successor.
