I agree. The West can prevail, although there is a fine line to travel. Trust also needs to be increased massively, and disinformation challenged, as large fractures are causing so many problems. The best weapon is unity through fairness, inclusion, and truth. Unfortunately, this is still lacking from many governments.

Hi Alex. I wish you a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year. Thank you again for all of the knowledge and insight that you bring to us.

Alex, your videos are Needed & Great. I Wish you and us all who wants it, a great year end, as well as a good 2023! And that Ukraine in the upcoming year will show its way toward winning this awful disastrous war with Russia, and that Peace will prevail! Take Care

Thank you for articulating so well the values and case for why democracy will prevail. Have a good Christmas, look forward to your new writings.

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Uplifting and much appreciated. Happy holidays.

Thank you for always being the optimist! I've enjoyed your videos this year and appreciate that you took the audience seriously and treated us like adults, it's particularly valuable when there are so many sources of clickbait and "hot-takes" out there, truly your videos are some of the best on the internet.

Thank you for your endless optimism. Have a great winter holiday!

Thank you for sharing your clear point of view whit us. I Wish you happy Hollidays and I look forward to read your book!🙂

Thank you for putting a good spin at all the horror we have gone through this year.

Thank you, Alex. Happy New Year.

Thank you for this uplifting message. Though it seems like your point about Ukraine's victory should have been higher up on the list here. It seems like a lot of democracy's other victories this year was made possible by Ukraine's willingness to fight for it. They united the rest of Europe behind them, they attracted the focus of the United States, they gave NATO a purpose and though it would be interesting to see polling about this, I mean to remember that Ukraine may have played a part in Macron's reelection too, given how clear they made it that someone competent and willing to take responsibility for Europe and not take a 'Frexit' stance could be important, and highlighted LePen's connection to Russia

You say so obvious things and still it feels so good to watch it. Thank you!

oh wow - many thanks for these great insights and perspectives - all the best in 2023

Love your eternal optimism, I'm trying to be more like this in my life. Looking for that silver lining in all things can bring a positive outlook to my everyday life, and it can also help me define myself, concepts and events more clearly; I have to understand these more deeply when I look for that optimistic perspective.

Thank you so much, always interesting ideas, useful recaps and well educated opinions from you. Enjoy warm saunas and happy new year!

The Churchill quote made me smile 🙂

Alex, a Happy New. Thank you for your contributions and comments in CY 2022.

Thank you Alex, interesting debate as always and all the best for 2023

Great video. Your insights are invaluable. Best wishes for the season from Canada.

Hi from Canada, thanks for this nice and optimistic chronicle Alex. See you in 2023!

Thank you Alex for the videos on the war. They were very helpful to understand the war and its consequences. Also the series on geopolitics is very insightful and easy to follow. Hope the series continues throughout 2023 as I don't know any other source that treats any topic with both a political and an academic approach. Would be nice to see a video were you delineate the coming year. Although that is prone to miscalculations it is always exciting to hear what you believe will happen next.

Thank you Alex. You are an inspiration. Enjoy your Christmas 🎄

Would have been nice to hear more about the several non-US-EU (western) democracies around the world and how they're faring. It's almost more interesting and important to understand those countries where democracy doesn't necessarily have a very long history, but are trying to get this system to work, like the democracies in Africa, India and South East Asia.

Thank you and happy holidays ❤

Hyvää päivää. Hyvää Jolua

I totally agree. The democracy has sometimes its weaknesses, of course. But it was, it is and will be the best form of governance. I pray and hope for peace for all people and wish Merry Christmas 🎄 and a Happy New Year... 🥂🍾....

I really enjoy listening to your videos. I hope democracy continues to prevail next and more years to come.

Great summary. This is a great place to come for reasoned, balanced assessment of a given topic. Looking forward to more

Wow Alex this might be my favourite video of yours yet. You're a total inspiration and actually because of seeing your success I've decided to start making videos too! Keep grinding, your hard work clearly pays off!

And all the best to you and your literary efforts. I think 2023 will continue the trends you're observing, but not in a straight line, of course.

Thank you for all the excellent videos you and your team have put out this year! Just want to say, as a Brit, nothing about my country feels stable right now.

wow,, such light , such brightness, thank you for helping the blind

And MERRY CHRISTMAS Alex. Many of us in Finland and Sweden and elsewhere also celebrate christmas.

Alex, this has been such a great series to follow and I have enjoyed it so much and learned very much. I love the clear concise way you lay out every episode but I often wish they were longer! I am very much anticipating what you have in store for us next year! I too am an eternal optimist and thank you for laying out why Democracy prevailed and aren't we lucky it did. Happy New Year and see you in 2023!

Very good Alex 🎉! Merry Christmas 🎄

Right. Firstly HAPPY CHRISTMAS sir! I hope your Christmas Finnish goat has brought you and those you love great joy! And I had literally finished typing my Churchill quote when you made your concluding statement… I still wish you were UK PM.

Awesome series - loved it.

Victory to cooperation, common respect, equality and Democracy.

I wish I had Alex’s optimism. I still think humanity is programmed to self destruct. Overpopulation, lack of resources, global warming, water shortages and the death of our precious oceans. Happy new year.

Happy holidays Alex from Texas!

Happy Holidays, Alex.

A very poignant and relevant end of the year message for the times to come. Time to be positive.

Your analysis is much needed and brilliant, I wish we had more positive minded people, we are redeemed with the prophets of disaster.

Appreciate your positive outlook for the future

Thank you. Very positive message.

Very good video. When I look globally and back in time togeather it seems this battle for democracy may take centuries to win. Of course it's now the winning but the taking part which is more important.

Happy new year!

Thanks again!

I wish you all an episode in which Alex explains why Russia failed and how the trial of Putin is gonna look like

Alex is good at playing word games. I got to give it to him. He's able to say people all have right to live their own way but his way of life is better. Good job Alex. Good job!

I wish you a happy and healthy new year and look forward to seeing you in 2023.

Happy New Year sir.

Of course you are optimistic, Finnish nature is like that, i think :-) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

thank you for this breath of optimism. It's sorely needed in these dark moments. I only wish I could totally believe you when you say that Russia is losing; it's not the impression I get, at least militarily at this moment in time. It has made its young men flee the draft, and probably destroyed its future economic growth, but it might yet win a Pyrrhus's victory in Ukraine

Alex, thanks for the pep talk. I hope you're right.

and to you sir thank you !

It's been a pleasure listening to your perspective dear Alex Sir! It is a fact that the world is trying to be divided into two segments: one being democracy while the other being autocracy. But if we want one world, it will be the Spirit of Nationalism that will bind the people of this earth. For example it was the centripetal force created by soccer world cup, that brought the people of Argentina as one nation. The European Union is one the finest example of peoples of nations binding together. To my mind, the cohesion is more because of psychological oneness of emotions people than the political moves of governments. The world will be one, only when there is psychological oneness. History has taught that no man made mechanical system has ever brought people together. There would have to be transformation of our consciousness. I know this seems too idealistic; but we need an ideal to trace our future action Here's wishing you all Merriment, Light and Love

Thank you Alex

Thank you for sharing your thoughts during this difficult year. Happy Holidays.

Mad? I am so tired of frustrated people who only complain and do not know how to make something better than it was. Thank God for people who can say... wait a second... look around ... Please continue to do what you do for God's sake. Maybe write democracy for dummies! Wishing you a happy new year from 🇨🇦.

someone got to be the light at the end of the tunnel. thanks for being apart of the light

Thank you Alex. Always a genuine pleasure to tune in to your presentations. Happy holidays from a democratic Australia! 🇦🇺

I’m quite optimistic about the future too, but the main issue I’m personally very concerned about is the coming demographic collapses facing developed countries and Asian countries like Korea or China. I’m hoping technology can somewhat off set this, but having pretty much inverted population pyramids in the coming future for many countries seems like a crisis waiting to happens

Merry Christmas 🌲🎄

Interesting summary of 2022 🎉

With full respect Dr. Stubb, I found many of your arguments for why democrats ought to optimistic about affairs as they played out in 2022 to be quite puzzling. I’ll single out just 3-4 of the ones that I found difficult to swallow, and in the off chance that you find this, I look forward to your response to these. The rejuvenation of the EU doesn’t seem to me to be a cause for celebration given the democracy-deficit at its heart. The criticisms the venerable Tony Benn had issued nearly two decades ago of both the citizens’ lack of control and the consequent alienation from the opaqueness of its running seem to me to be just as valid today. Moreover, the EU by its very nature exposes its citizenry to the market and thus provokes the rise of identitarian movements as the dynamic someone like Karl Polanyi had described for the first wave of globalisation plays out once again inside its borders. The political philosopher John Gray quite keenly observes that in Continental Europe today, the eurosceptics are the youth given they don’t have the euro denominated savings to protect that baby boomers do by dint of having no savings. As the study of neoliberalism is developing as a scholarly field in its own right, it is becoming clearer that this is not a bug but a feature of the EU: that Neoliberalism has been embedded within the EU since the days of Jean Monnet. I quite recommend Quinn Slobodian and Wolfgang Streeck on this. It isn’t self-evident to me, as a denizen of the global south, that a revitalisation of NATO serves the general interest of democracy. To take but my neck of the woods, South Asia, NATO invaded, destabilised, and then left a vacuum in Afghanistan, propped up multiple dictatorships in Pakistan, and is now a keen supporter of our strongman PM Modi via the Quad security dialogue as a counterbalance to China. NATO’s constituents may be democracies, but its ends and means have not been so in the experience of the global south. The matter of Emmanuel Macron’s reelection too seems to me to be indicative of the general malaise of global north democracy. The French electorate backed a candidate of limited appeal to them to prevent the coming to power of a candidate of even more limited appeal in a show of an effective relationship with politics. Then in a show of an expressive relationship with politics, they hamstrung his party in July forcing Macron to lead a minority government forced to collude with the very people Macron had been picked to keep out of office on a substantial amount of legislation. The muddle of effective and expressive relationships with politics now has the French being led by a lame duck presidency with a limited mandate at a moment of crisis. I wish I had the time to comment on your assessment of China more substantively. I wouldn’t be able to support my critique here, but there’s a tendency in global north critics to work with a singular hegemonic view, a vision derived from Locke and Montesquieu, of what democracy entails and looks like that then has them dismissing indigenous forms of people power in action in the global south. Louis Gave, a China watcher and market researcher, recently shared a fascinating view of how local and limited protests figure into an active dialogue between the CCP and the citizenry in China that provides an intriguing view into the diversity of democratic impulses, while there’s also the matter of the CCP membership exceeding the population of metropolitan France and Benelux with about 1 in 13-14 people being a party member that provides another indigenous mechanism of state-citizenry dialogue that global north critics of China tend to miss.

Thanks Alex, a happy, democratic new year to you too. I absolutely agree with all your points but I feel you missed a vital aspect of how Ukraine reacted to the invasion. They had the choice between bowing to autocracy or grasping democracy with both hands and fighting to retain it. They, personified by the president, chose to defy the autocracy. It turned out that the president had understood his people and the vaste majority formed up to support him, realising the PERSONAL COST in blood and treasure. IMO that is the one event, ongoing, which re-inspired democracy around the world.

Hear, hear!

You should look into being a guest on the Gonzalo Liro Roundtable. You are both diff but both smart enough to have a well thought out gentleman’s conversation.

Solid erudite analysis.

Bravo.

It feel like a scary time, but I agree that the democracies are winning. There seems to be potential for the threats coming from authoritarian powers to be quelled in a major way, in time to deal with the next threat - climate change. Merry Xmas Alex and thanks for your clear ideas.

Happy holidays.

Thank you Prof. Stubb, you've been a positive influence in this dark year in Europe's history! Looking forward for more content from you in 2023. Happy Holidays!

Great video

EU does not represent my own self interest or even a pan-European democracy, it needs to change, perhaps not abolished but authoritarians within it purged.

If you wanna be successful, you most take responsibility for your emotions, not place the blame on others. In addition to make you feel more guilty about your faults, pointing the finger at others will only serve to increase your sense of personal accountability. There's always a risk in every investment, yet people still invest and succeed. You must look outward if you wanna be successful in life.

Thanks for the informative vids Alex... its cool to have lectures from a politician who's also an academic! Merry xmas!!

Wish you Alex and all a lovely Christmas and New Year! Let's hope that Ukraine really wins the war the sooner, the better!

hi, i wonder if you have a podcast. its easy if you only need to listen. like you analysis on the war it gives me more insight in the complexity.

Thanks, happy new year🎄⛄⛪. it always democracy win. autocracy always lose especially in (economy system). autocracy authority always finished by (corruption problems).

Hi Alex , nice video for closing a strange year with war but we feel more optimistic now for the next!! As Zelensky said yesterday victorious new year. Yes democratic had a recovery somehow in Europe and minterms USA elections was a relief plus the lost of Bolsonaro in Brazil. Europe and NATO are both more power than ever. I wish you a merry Christmas ⛄🎄 and a happy new year 🎇.

I also believe in all these , nowadays it is a challenge.

Alex Stubb: A beacon in political appreciation, upstanding, character and leadership. Lovely seasonal message. The same to you and your family ❤️

One thing that struck me this year was the extent to which many western military weapon systems were weapons that were developed by companies in two or more countries. One can also look at the process whereby the West secures older soviet made weaponry for Ukraine from a large number of Western countries. But it is to me noted too that none of the Western powers, including the former Axis powers, have no where near the production capacity of weaponry and munitions that they had during WWII when their economies were all centrally managed economies instead of capitalistic economies. Democracies may well be more survivable in war, but only if they manage to tone down the greed and avarice of their own capitalism for the duration.

Alex, your observations, analysis, and commentary are excellent. Your history with Putin makes you a trusted and honest contributor to the ongoing events in Ukraine and Russia. This is a great channel! Happy holidays.

I absolutely agree that democracy and the rule of law create the best living situation for people. There is a basic principle that in a multitude of counsel there is victory or wisdom. It is an absolute fallacy that one person like Putin can direct a country for the best. It always ends in disaster eventually. I love Churchill's quote, so true.

Watching this series has been insightful and uplifting but at the same time super depressing because I get look at the open, logical and largely altruistic politics of Finland, Scand and Europe in general and I'm always made aware of just how closed, illogical and largely self-centred it is over here in the UK.

Excelent!

individual freedom is the most important thing

Thanks Alex for the positive vibe and the good wishes .... happy Christmas and good luck with your book! ..... It's so important that we learn to be deeply conscious of our priviledge to live in and cocreate democracies and that at its core a democracy is held together by a set of beliefs that we should not be shy to uphold and be proud of .... and that democracies have to keep on learning ..... to "dignify" (or how did you call this) their political actions, being less oriented around short term, mostly economical, benefits, but by longer term visions based on moral values, so that they can keep on being the natural lights in the world, beacons for the global community.

Multilateral Forums: America also uses its different multilateral organizations to control the narrative and resultantly influencing major critical decisions around the world.

Alex, here’s a question that I’d like you to consider discussing here in the future. What are the prospects for admitting Ukraine to NATO after the war? I am particularly unsure how Hungary’s vote could be secured. If not NATO, how does the West guarantee Ukraine’s security from a certain unnamed enemy to their East?

Hi Alex, all the best for 2023. But be careful with your book. Azar Gat speaks in his book ‘War in Human Civilization’ about cooperation, competition and conflict, so not the other way around. I know that now conflict is selling better, but maybe you should mention it in your book. Greetings from Holland.

Dear Alex, can you please comment on Turkey and the war preparations & threats between Greece and Turkey? Thnx

Do we live in a democracy? Either we don't and thus democracy has failed or we do and democracy has failed to adapt to the world or protect freedoms.

Sunak is already polling on par with Starmer for preferred PM! Pretty surprising given the circumstances.

The new book sounds good. My tiny brain was thinking during your talk. There is democracy and there is the economic system. I was thinking that democracy may not work so good with hard capitalism. Too much socialism seems to ruin it as well. Maybe - your book will address the ideal mix. Hyvää joulua!

It’s been a very fascinating year for geopolitics. In the same sentiment as your episode, I agree that this year has been a good year for Western-aligned countries. And I also share your sentiment that there is a sense of disorder in this new upcoming era in geopolitics. But I don’t share your sense of optimism for democracies just yet. To me, I believe that we are still edging closer to an inevitable showdown between the Western-aligned coalition and the emerging powers that wish supplant them in the world order. All opponents have incentives that push them to war. Russia needed to secure its interests sooner than later because of post-Soviet states drifting to the West, and their demographic declining population means that every passing year they lose an important edge to Russian power (ie. shrinking economy and less men eligible for war). Which I believe to be an integral reason why Russia acts so belligerently on the world stage. China also suffers from similar issues. While they have enjoyed meteoric growth for the past few decades, the consequences of poor autocratic policies (one child policy) are starting to show. An aging and eventually declining population means that their economic growth will see rapid decreases. Slowing economic growth destroys the legitimacy of any government, but is particularly devastating to an autocracy because the people no longer receive compensation for their lack of civil rights and liberties. So they are incentivized to act belligerently. It gives them an enemy to unify their people, but also gives them the opportunity to make use of advantages that are slowly eroding. Of course, the West is also incentivized to be proactive now that there are competitors who are strong enough to actually threaten their hegemony in the world. Your episode in America’s national security policy highlights an example of this. I am very much a nationalist (only in a civic sense) for American interest. And in my view, I agree that it is in our best interests for close cooperation and integration with Western-aligned states that share our civic values. But I cannot feel entirely optimistic for democracies. The general trend is still pointing to conflict and if you could touch on that in your book or future in-depth episodes, that would be fascinating. It is pretty cool to have a former head of state basically doing a level-headed lecture in geopolitics.

... and next year, we will continue fight for demoracy. Have a nice day.