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The Existential Crisis of the Liberal Democratic Model

(Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University) Maj.-Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman - The 9/11 attacks in 2001 marked the beginning of the crisis of the liberal democratic model. For decades, it was widely believed that granting full civil rights and complete equality for all individuals within a state, alongside economic welfare, would prevent violence. However, 9/11 and the subsequent wave of Islamist terrorism on the international stage undermined this belief. Paradoxically, citizens who had benefited from the fruits of liberal democracy turned against it. Islamist terrorism in Europe proved that Europe's core principles - acceptance, inclusion, and economic welfare for immigrants - were inadequate in preventing violent extremism. It became evident that religious and tribal identity is deeper and stronger than the Western concept of the nation-state. A widespread assumption held that wars aimed at redrawing borders had become a thing of the past and that the use of force to alter borders or impose one nation's political vision on another was no longer viable. But the Russia-Ukraine war and Hamas's brutal attack on peaceful civilians within sovereign Israel shattered this assumption. The sobering reality is that liberal democracy no longer guarantees personal security, economic prosperity, national security, or even the free formation of opinions, as individual consciousness is today shaped by algorithms. Diplomacy as practiced by President Trump includes aggressiveness. The world understands only power. Strength is meaningless unless it is demonstrated or used. According to this perspective, the U.S. is strong only if it is willing to leverage its pressure points. The purpose of power is not necessarily to provoke conflict but to avoid it by bending the will of others to secure the desired deal on more favorable terms. The writer, executive director of INSS, was former head of IDF Intelligence.
2025-03-06 00:00:00
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