🚨🌍 A DECADE AGO I WARNED ABOUT THE COMING CRISIS OF HOPE IN THE WEST. TODAY, IT IS UNFOLDING BEFORE OUR EYES. In 2016, I wrote an article entitled "They Don’t Believe in the Future." I argued that when young people lose confidence in their prospects, when education no longer guarantees opportunity, and when economic progress fails to translate into social mobility, frustration becomes a powerful force for political and social disruption. In this compelling @ForeignPolicy op-ed, former Estonian President @KerstiKaljulaid describes a growing crisis of hope across Western societies. Young Europeans are taking to the streets, questioning an economic model that increasingly denies them affordable housing, decent wages, security and the prospect of living better than their parents. ⚠️ The real crisis is not simply unemployment, inequality or the rising cost of living. It is the collapse of expectations. When an entire generation begins to believe that tomorrow will be worse than today, the consequences extend far beyond economics. The social contract itself comes under strain. 🌍 This is not exclusively an African, European or Western phenomenon. It is a structural challenge confronting societies worldwide. The geography may differ, but the underlying question is remarkably similar: What happens when young people stop believing that the future belongs to them? The most dangerous development is not that young people are protesting. It is that too many have lost faith in the institutions and economic arrangements supposed to offer them a future. 💡 My 2016 article approached this challenge through demographics, economic stagnation, debt and the failure of advanced economies to confront their structural problems. Today's developments reinforce that argument: a society that sacrifices its future to preserve an unsustainable present eventually pays a much higher price. foreignpolicy.com/2026/10/21…