OPINION — Reading Peter Zeihan’s 2022 tome “The End of the World Is Just the Beginning (Mapping the Collapse of Globalization)” back in 2024–25 was unsettling enough. His claim that the United States, architect and guarantor of the post‑WWII global order, would soon step back from that role felt like a stretch.
After all, America had spent eight decades building and policing a system that, on balance, delivered unprecedented stability and prosperity. Why would we walk away from that?
Now, in early 2026, the answer seems painfully obvious.
