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PESSIMISTIC POPULISTS

The third challenge today is a widespread loss of confidence in the West about its own systems and future potential. Sluggish growth across the developed world, stagnant incomes for much of the population, rising economic inequality, political gridlock, and the emergence of populist insurgencies on both sides of the political spectrum have fueled a widespread sense that Western models of governance and economic management are floundering.

Many of these problems are real and important. But they are not beyond the capacity of determined leadership to solve, nor do they represent fundamental weaknesses of the Western model. So the pessimism strikes us as dramatically overdone, like previous bouts of declinism and worry that the West's best days were past. The greatest danger, in fact, is that the widespread pessimism will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Gloomy Western policymakers and publics are more likely to see threats than opportunities and to turn away from the world rather than continue to lead it successfully.

This is notable in the rising opposition, for example, to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major trade deal that would help extend and deepen the liberal order across a broad swath of the globe. It is evident in the increasing suspicion of immigrants and refugees and in the growing support for closing borders. And it can be seen in the fraying and potential unraveling of international institutions such as the European Union, formerly a model of progressive international integration.

It would be a terrible shame if the West walked away from the very international order that it created after World War II and that has facilitated so much security, prosperity, and development over the decades. Instead, it should try to reinvigorate that order, with three moves in particular: working with China and India, bolstering international rules, and accentuating the positive global trends that get lost in all the hysteria about the negative ones.

Why China and India? Because they have the largest populations and economies in the developing world, are led by strong, reform-minded leaders, and are approaching the future with dynamism, optimism, and hope. Both understand that they need to take on greater responsibilities in confronting global problems, and as last fall's Paris climate agreement demonstrates, they are already starting to do so.

Although China's rise has been one of the universally acknowledged wonders of the age, India's recent rise has been impressive as well, as India, too, has embraced modernization, globalization, and Enlightenment rationalism. Along the way, India has maintained the world's largest democracy, successfully accommodated an amazingly diverse cultural and

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