Otava

Western countries are in the grip of great changes, and within a couple of generations we will no longer talk of the Western countries in any but a geographic and historical sense. The effects of global warming can no longer be controlled, and the shadow of the rising Eastern superpowers is spreading westward. The growth of immigration will change the nature of the West. Western culture will no longer be the high point of development, co-opting everything in its path, it will become an institution in decline. We are headed for a fall.

Timo Vihavainen is a professor of Russian studies at Helsinki University.