Trump and Xi may be shaping a new bipolar world, but multipolarity isn’t dead yet

For some years now, the phrase “multipolar world” has acquired the status of a reassuring mantra. The assumption behind it is that American hegemony is receding, China is rising, Russia remains consequential, India is emerging, Europe possesses considerable economic weight, and several regional powers are acquiring the capacity to resist being dictated to. The world — we were told — was becoming more dispersed, more balanced and therefore, presumably, more democratic. But history has a habit of laughing at reassuring assumptions. The extraordinary chemistry — or, more accurately, the extraordinary calculation — between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping now raises…