Aidan Regan: Ukraine war exposes lie at the heart of global ‘free trade’ myth

Globalisation doesn’t lead to free and fair societies, instead it helps to prop up dictators and the democratic world needs to wake up to this reality

The war in Ukraine has laid bare the inherent contradiction between national democratic politics and global economics. Picture: Shutterstock

For a few years now, a discourse has been developing in the US that international relations is increasingly shaped by an ideological battle between the democratic and authoritarian worlds. This narrative creates the idea that geopolitics in the 21st century is a battle between two great powers: China and America.

I have always been sceptical of this idea, mainly because the world of international relations is far more complex and multifaceted. A narrative that depicts ...