IN THE WORDS of Vladimir Lenin, ‘there are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.’ How thrilled he would be to know that his pithy quip about the Bolshevik Revolution still resonates today, hinting at a timeless truth of politics: peace and stability seem inevitable until, suddenly, they don’t.

Even now, or perhaps especially now – I’m writing this in the first quarter of 2022 – the idea that ‘there are weeks when decades happen’ elicits visceral dread in politicians, business leaders and citizens alike. Chaos almost always runs counter to the interests of the majority, which is why the stated aim of most institutions, whether domestic or multinational, is to create and nurture stability. To extend the ‘decades where nothing happens’ out into the very distant future.