Source: Cobden Centre
by Michael Froman
“In 1651, the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes imagined life in the ‘state of nature’ — that is, a world without governing institutions and guardrails. This world was a bleak one, enveloped in a constant state of war that rendered life ‘nasty, brutish, and short.’ Hobbes envisaged a Leviathan, an all-powerful sovereign, as the only means to tame this state of nature. The post-World War II rules-based order, defined and led by the United States, was the modern alternative. Today, we are undergoing a grand experiment testing the impact of moving away from those rules.” (09/16/25)
https://www.cobdencentre.org/2025/09/hobbes-and-the-state-of-nature/