Vergeet dat onze tijd zoveel complexer is dan alles wat ooit voorafging: geschiedenis van de wereld van morgen

by Rik Coolsaet

Meer dan een decennium geleden peilde Geschiedenis van de wereld van morgen het diepe ongenoegen met de bestaande orde, in de grote omgeving van de wereldpolitiek en in de kleine omgeving van het dagelijks leven. Woelige tijden zouden aanbreken. Zo gebeurde.

In Vergeet dat onze tijd zoveel complexer is dan alles wat ooit voorafging maakt Rik Coolsaet opnieuw de balans op, op zoek naar de polsslag van de samenleving waarin de stroomversnelling van de afgelopen decennia ons heeft gebracht.

Dit is een geschiedenis van het heden, in het licht van gisteren, met het oog op morgen.

225 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 16, 2021

About the author

Rik Coolsaet is Professor of International Relations at Ghent University (Belgium). He is Chair of the Department of Political Science at Ghent University. He is senior associate fellow at the Egmont Institute (Royal Institute for International Relations) in Brussels and member of the European Commission Expert Group on Violent Radicalisation (established in 2006).

From 2002 to 2009 he served as Director of the ‘Security&Global Governance’ Program at Egmont–Royal Institute for International Relations (Brussels). He has held several high–ranking official positions, such as deputy chief of the Cabinet of the Belgian Minister of Defence (1988–1992) and deputy chief of the Cabinet of the Minister of Foreign Affairs (1992–1995). On the issue of terrorism he has been coordinating research on jihadi terrorism, that resulted in several publications. His most recent publications on this topic are: 'EU counterterrorism strategy: value added or chimera ?', in: International Affairs, July 2010 and Jihadi Terrorism and the Radicalisation Challenge in Europe (Ashgate, London, 2008).

He also published the first comprehensive study on the history of Belgian foreign policy (Belgium and its foreign policy 1830–2000, 4rd revised edition, 2003, in Dutch and partly in French). He also researched the evolution of diplomacy (The Transformation of Diplomacy at the Threshold of the New Millennium, in: Jönsson, C., Langhorne, R., Diplomacy. London, Sage, 2004, Vol. III). He writes and comments extensively on international relations and Belgian foreign policy. His latest publication is A History of Tomorrow’s World (De geschiedenis van de wereld van morgen (2008, in Dutch), that attempts to analyse the long–term change patterns in international relations and the dynamics behind today’s world order. Upon publication in February 2008 this book appeared on the Belgian bookshops’ bestseller list for several months.