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Nigel Farage depicts his political party as a distinct phenomenon that has exploded on to the world stage, its meteoric rise an remarkable epochal event. But this week, in every one of the continent's major countries and from the Indian subcontinent and Thailand to the US and Argentina, hard-right, anti-immigration, anti-globalisation parties similar to his are also leading in the opinion polls.

In last Saturday’s Czech elections, the conservative, pro-Russian leader Andrej Babiš toppled the head of government Petr Fiala. National Rally, which has just brought down yet another French prime minister, is leading the polls for both the presidential race and the legislature. In the German nation, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is currently the most popular party. Hungary’s Fidesz party, Slovakia's governing alliance and the Italian political group are already in power, while the Austrian FPÖ, the Netherlands’ Freedom party (PVV) and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang – all hardline nationalists – are part of an international coalition of opponents of global cooperation, motivated by far-right propagandists like Steve Bannon, aiming to dethrone the global legal order, diminish human rights and undermine international collaboration.

Rise of Populist Nationalism

The populist nationalist surge exposes a recent undeniable reality that supporters of democracy ignore at our peril: an authoritarian ethnic nationalism – once thought defeated with the Berlin Wall – has replaced economic liberalism as the dominant ideology of our age, giving us a world of priorities: “America first”, “Indian focus”, “China first”, “Russia first”, “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 ethnic nationalism is the driver behind the breaches of international human rights law not just by one nation in conflict but in almost every one of the world’s 59 cross-border conflicts and civil wars.

Root Causes Explained

Crucial to grasp the root causes, common to almost every country, that have driven this new age of nationalism. It begins with a broadly shared perception that a globalization that was accessible yet exclusionary has been a unregulated system that has not been fair to all.

For more than a decade, leaders have not only been slow to respond to the many people who feel excluded and left behind, but also to the shifting dynamics of world economic influence, transitioning from a unipolar world once led by the US to a multi-power landscape of rival major nations, and from a system of international law to a power-based one. The ethnic nationalism that this has provoked means free trade is giving way to protectionism. Where economics used to drive politics, the politics of nationalism is now driving financial choices, and already more than 100 countries are running mercantilist policies marked out by reshoring and friend-shoring and by bans on international commerce, foreign funding and knowledge sharing, sinking international cooperation to its weakest point since 1945.

Optimism in Public Opinion

However, there is hope. The cement is still wet, and even as it hardens we can see optimism in the common sense of the global public. In a poll conducted for a prominent organization, of thousands of individuals in dozens of nations we find a significant portion are more resistant to an divisive nationalist agenda and more willing to embrace global teamwork than many of the officials who govern them.

Globally there is, perhaps surprisingly, only a small group of hardened anti-internationalists representing 16.5% of the world's people (even if a quarter in today’s US) who either feel peaceful living between diverse communities is unattainable or have a zero-sum mindset that if they or their country do well, it has to be at the cost of others doing badly.

But there are another 21% at the other end, whom we might call dedicated globalists, who either still see cooperation across borders through open trade as a positive sum win-win, or are what an influential thinker calls “locally engaged global citizens”.

The Global Majority's Stance

The vast majority of the world's citizens are moderate in views: 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 “them”, opponents 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 garden gate or city wall? Affirmative, under specific circumstances. A first group, 22%, will support aid efforts to relieve suffering and are prepared to act out of selflessness, supporting emergency help for disaster zones. Those we might call “charitable” cooperation advocates feel the pain of others and believe in something larger than their own interests.

A second group comprising 22% are pragmatic multilateralists who want to know that any taxes paid for international development are spent well. And there is a final category, roughly a fifth, personally motivated collaborators, who will endorse teamwork if they can see that it advantages them and their local areas, whether it be through ensuring them basic necessities or peace and security.

Forging a Collaborative Consensus

So a definite majority can be built not just for emergency assistance if funds are used wisely but also for international measures to deal with global problems, like climate crisis and disease control, as long as this case is presented on grounds of wise personal benefit, 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 work together from necessity or if we have a necessity for collaboration, the response is both.

And this openness to cooperate across borders shows how we can turn back the xenophobic tide: we can overcome current pessimistic, inward-looking and often aggressive and authoritarian nationalism that demonises immigrants, foreigners and “others” as long as we champion a positive, globally engaged and welcoming national pride that responds to people’s desire to belong and connects to their immediate concerns.

Tackling Key Issues

And while detailed surveys tell us that across the west, unauthorized entry is currently the biggest national issue – and no one should doubt that it must promptly be brought under control – the public sentiment data also tell us that the public are even more concerned about what is happening in their own lives and within their immediate neighborhoods. Last month, the UK Prime Minister gave an emotional speech about how what’s positive in the nation can drive out what’s bad, doing so precisely because in most western countries, “broken” and “deteriorating” are the words people have for years most frequently used when asked about both our financial system and society.

However, as the leader also pointed out, the extreme right is more interested in using complaints than ending them. Nigel Farage praised a ill-fated economic plan as “the best Conservative budget” since the 1980s. But he would also enact a comparable strategy – what was intended – the largest reductions in government programs. The party's proposal to reduce public spending by a huge sum would not repair downtrodden communities but ravage them, turn citizen against citizen and wreck any spirit of solidarity. Under a far-right government, you will not be able to afford to be sick, disabled, poor or vulnerable. Continually from now on, and in every electoral district, Reform should be asked which hospital, which school and which public service will be the first to be reduced or shut down.

Risks and Solutions

“This ideology” is economic theory at its most inhumane, more harmful even than monetary policy, and spiteful far beyond fiscal restraint. What the people are indicating all over the Western world is that they want their leaders to rebuild our economies and our communities. “The party” and its international partners should be exposed day after day for plans that would harm both. And for those of us who believe our best days could be in the future, we can go beyond pointing out the party's contradictions by presenting a case for a better Britain that resonates not just to idealists, but to realists, to personal benefit, and to the everyday compassion of the nation's citizens.