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The Reform UK leader depicts his political party as a distinct phenomenon that has exploded on to the global stage, its meteoric rise an exceptional epochal event. But this week, in every one of the continent's leading countries and from India and Thailand to the United States and Argentina, hard-right, anti-immigrant, anti-globalisation parties like his are also ahead in the opinion polls.

During recent Czech voting, the rightwing, pro-Russian leader Andrej Babiš toppled the head of government Petr Fiala. A French political group, which has just forced the resignation of yet another French prime minister, is leading the polls for both the presidential race and the legislature. In the German nation, the right-wing AfD party is currently the most popular party. A Hungarian political force, Robert Fico’s pro-Russian Slovakian coalition and the Brothers of Italy are already in government, while the Freedom party of Austria (FPÖ), the Dutch PVV and Belgian Vlaams Belang – all hardline nationalists – are part of an international coalition of anti-internationalists, inspired by right-wing influencers like Steve Bannon, seeking to dethrone the international rule of law, diminish human rights and destroy international collaboration.

Rise of Populist Nationalism

This nationalist wave reveals a new and unavoidable truth that democrats overlook at great risk: an authoritarian ethnic nationalism – once thought defeated with the Berlin Wall – has replaced neoliberalism as the leading belief system of our age, giving us a world of priorities: “US priority”, “Indian focus”, “Chinese emphasis”, “Russian primacy”, “my tribe first” and often “my tribe first and only” regimes. It is this ethnic nationalism that helps explain why the world is now composed of 91 autocracies and only 88 democracies, and this ideology is the driver behind the violations of international human rights law not just by Russia in Ukraine but in almost every one of the world’s 59 cross-border conflicts and civil wars.

Root Causes Explained

It is important to grasp the underlying forces, widespread globally, that have driven this recent nationalist era. It begins with a broadly shared perception that a globalization that was open but not inclusive has been a unregulated system that has been unjust to all.

For more than a decade, leaders have not only been slow to respond to the many people who feel left out and marginalized, but also to the changing balance of world economic influence, moving us from a US-dominated era once led by the United States to a multipolar world of competing superpowers, and from a system of international law to a power-based one. The nationalist ideology that this has incited means free trade is giving way to trade barriers. Where market forces used to drive government policies, the politics of nationalism is now driving economic decisions, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies marked out by reshoring and ally-focused trade and by restrictions on cross-border trade, foreign funding and knowledge sharing, sinking international cooperation to its weakest point since the post-war period.

Hope in Global Public Sentiment

But all is not lost. The cement is still wet, and even as it solidifies we can see optimism in the pragmatism of the global public. In a recent survey for a prominent organization, of 36,000 people in 34 countries we find a clear majority are less receptive to an divisive nationalist agenda and more willing to embrace global teamwork than many of the leaders who govern them.

Globally there is, maybe unexpectedly, only a limited number of staunch global cooperation opponents representing a minority of the world's people (even if 25% in the United States currently) who either feel peaceful living between diverse communities is impossible or have a win-lose perspective that if they or their country do well, it has to be at the expense of others doing badly.

However there are another 21% at the other end, whom we might call committed internationalists, who either still see international collaboration through free commerce as a positive sum win-win, or are what an influential thinker calls “rooted cosmopolitans”.

Worldwide Public Position

The vast majority of the global public are somewhere in between: not narrow, inward-looking nationalists, as “US priority” ideology would suggest, or fully global citizens. They are devoted to their country but don’t see the world as in a never-ending struggle between the “our side” and the “others”, adversaries permanently set apart from each other in an unbridgeable divide.

Are most moderates prefer a obligation-light or a responsible global community? Are they willing to accept obligations beyond their local area or city wall? Yes, under certain conditions. A first group, about a fifth, will support humanitarian action to relieve suffering and are ready to act out of altruism, backing disaster relief for affected areas. Those we might call “good cause” multilateralists empathize of others and believe in something larger than their own interests.

A second group comprising 22% are practical cooperators who want to know that any public funds for international development are spent well. And there is a third group, 21%, self-interested multilateralists, who will endorse teamwork if they can see that it advantages them and their communities, whether it be through guaranteeing them basic necessities or peace and security.

Building a Cooperative Majority

So a definite majority can be built not just for emergency assistance if funds are used wisely but also for global action to deal with worldwide issues, like environmental emergency and disease control, as long as this case is presented on grounds of enlightened self-interest, and if we stress the reciprocal benefits that flow to them and their own country. And thus for those who have long wondered whether we cooperate out of need or if we have a necessity for collaboration, the answer is both.

And this openness to cooperate across borders shows how we can reverse the anti-foreigner sentiment: we can overcome current pessimistic, inward-looking and often forceful and controlling patriotic extremism that demonises newcomers, foreigners and “different groups” as long as we champion a positive, outward-looking and welcoming national pride that responds to people’s need for community and connects to their immediate concerns.

Tackling Key Issues

Although in-depth polls tell us that across the west, illegal immigration is currently the biggest national issue – and no one should doubt that it must promptly be managed effectively – the snapshots of opinion also tell us that the people are even more worried by what is happening in their personal circumstances and within their own local communities. Recently, the UK Prime Minister gave an emotional speech about how what’s positive in the nation can overcome what’s negative, doing so precisely because in most western countries, “broken” and “deteriorating” are the words people have for years most commonly cited when asked about both our economy and society.

However, as the leader also reminded us, the far right is more interested in using complaints than ending them. A Reform leader hailed a ill-fated economic plan as “the best Conservative budget” since the 1980s. But he would also enact a similar plan – what was planned – the largest reductions in government programs. Reform’s plan to reduce public spending by £275bn would not fix downtrodden communities but ravage them, turn citizen against citizen and destroy any spirit of solidarity. Under a far-right government, you will not be able to afford to be ill, disabled, poor or vulnerable. Every day from now on, and in every constituency, Reform should be asked which medical facility, which educational institution and which government service will be the first to be reduced or closed.

The Stakes and the Alternative

“This ideology” is neoliberalism at its most inhumane, more harmful even than monetarism, and vindictive far beyond fiscal restraint. What the public are indicating all over the Western world is that they want their governments to restore our economies and our communities. “Reform” and its international partners should be exposed day after day for plans that would devastate both. And for those of us who believe our best days could be in the future, we can go beyond highlighting the party's contradictions by setting out a argument for a better Britain that resonates not just to idealists, but to realists, to self-interest, and to the daily kindness of the British people.