这失败的局面导致了一种危险的动荡，而其后果现在已经无法忽视了。在很多国家，对于愈来愈趋于同质化的政治决策的反抗，都来自政党或者某些在野党的运动，例如茶党运动、特朗普、以及欧洲大部分的左翼和右翼政党们。这些运动的主张都明确地反对上层和国际化的精英阶层，他们不无理由地指出，这些精英阶层都在无视民众的要求和政策偏好。实际上在很多国家中左右两派政党间的差距变得越来越小，民众们利用手中选票来改写政局的判断依据，仅仅是被选政党是否拒绝了现有的政治传统规则。这样一来，随着当局政治家们对民众的回应减少，民众就愈发远离民主政治。

　　Where will this lead? History’s answers are not encouraging. In the runup to World War I, it was widely believed that a new liberal order had been constructed under the aegis of the British, French, and Habsburg empires, yet this world was thrown into utter disarray by the upheavals of war and the Great Depression. Far from eroding the nation-state, the era of elite-led global integration in the years after 1989 has similarly failed to create legitimate transnational institutions, leaving national democratic communities as the primary source of identity, security, and loyalty for citizens. Now that the defenders of the traditional nation-state are regaining the power they have coveted for so long, the future of global governance rests in their hands. At stake is whether they succeed in finding a new balance between national sovereignty and transnational cooperation — or instead, return us to an era of mercantilism, inter-state competition, and great-power warfare.

　　最后会走向何方？历史给我们的答案可并不鼓舞人心。在一战前夕，大家都坚信英国、法国和哈普斯堡皇室建立起的新自由主义秩序，然而这个世界却依旧被拉入了混战和大萧条之中。在精英主导的全球一体化区域里，1989年后尝试建立合法跨国机构的努力显然是失败的，反而让所有民主国家成为了公民身份认同、安全感和忠诚度的第一输出来源。现在，传统的民族主义者们获得了他们觊觎已久的力量，而全球治理的未来正掌握在他们手中。重要的是，他们能否找到平衡国家主权利益和跨国合作的新办法，或者，重新把我们带回重商主义和大国竞赛的时代。