The world often appears upside down. Events often remind me of Bob Dylan’s words in Idiot Wind, “what’s good is bad, what’s bad is good”. The political spectrum is no longer simply divided into left and right, but into the included and the excluded. In the aftermath of the Trump victory, Paolo Gentiloni, Italian Foreign Minister, commented incisively that globalisation has left large segments of people in a bad way, and there is a rising public reaction. Beppe Grillo said that his victory is symptomatic of a global backlash which the establishment has yet to comprehend.

With Trump’s victory, environmentalists are fearing the worst, seeing the Paris Climate Treaty going up in smoke, while gun lobbyists must be popping champagne; the wealthy too, at the prospect of lower taxes that would mostly benefit the rich. Migrants in the US may see a bleak future; China is expecting a hike in US tariffs; seasoned politicians are scratching their heads trying to figure out how a man with no political experience can sit in the White House and get a grip on economic and world affairs.

Yet there is always another side to every story. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) was largely responsible for its own party’s defeat, having been embroiled in a heavily biased system that essentially cut Bernie Sanders out of the primary race, anointing a possibly unelectable Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee despite the popular vote.

As for Clinton, having used a private server as Secretary of State and amassing fortunes for the Clinton Foundation from governments and banks, she then went on to delete 30,000 emails just after she was subpoenaed to appear before a Congressional hearing. Then there was all her sabre rattling against Russia, and the admission in a Wikileaks email that she knew that US allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar were funding the Daesh arch terrorists, yet American weapons kept flooding into the Gulf in record numbers.

President-elect Trump certainly has a lot of learning to do, not least of which is curbing his tongue and showing more social sensitivity

In this part of the Mediterranean we all know that Ghaddafi was not exactly Mr Nice Guy. But should any Secretary of State ever appear on television, speaking as some self-anointed Caesar, stating “we came, we saw, he died”, and then follow up with a sneer and a laugh?

And consider, furthermore that Libya promptly became a failed State and breeding ground for Daesh. And what to say about her leaked comment to her advisors regarding Wikileaks editor Julian Assange: “Can’t we just drone this guy?” How did the DNC ever expect her to be electable?

For his part, President Elect Trump certainly has a lot of learning to do, not least of which is curbing his tongue and showing more social sensitivity.

Meanwhile, the establishment can no longer expect to maintain the status quo in political dialogues, empty promises, back-door deals with mega corporations, and a gradual leeching ofpower away from elected represent-atives to unelected institutions and powerful lobbies.

Many persons speaking out against these are getting public support,including those on the far right of the political spectrum.

Political, economic and financial systems are crumbling, while wealth keeps gravitating inexorably to the top, and people are feeling increasingly disempowered, not to mention impoverished. The same happened in 1933, when the German people felt humiliated and driven into a corner of financial ruin by the banks and victorious nations of World War I, which thus opened a door to extreme backlash. History has a nasty habit of repeating itself.

Trump was elected because he promised to shake the corrupt system to the core. Whether or not he will do so remains to be seen. Maybe he should actually start by pardoning or withdrawing all charges against Assange and Snowdon, who are public heroes. There is no denying that there is something very wrong with the system, so wrong that the war hawks in the west have even brought us from a relatively stable political climate to the brink of ever increasing conflict that could spread across the globe.

In his victory speech Trump extended the olive branch to all countries, while the Russian President reacted by taking up that same branch and declaring that he is ready to do his utmost to rebuild relations with the US. Let us hope they deliver.

It is no secret that I have never supported the Republican Party in the US. But then again the Republican Party has not supported Trump. There is nothing, virtually nothing, more important for this world and the people who live in it, than for powerful nations to get along, and to avoid war, which is not only an abomination but also an immeasurable human tragedy.

How could one not rejoice at such a prospect? Who in his right mind would want a state of belligerence between nations? If Trump derails the climate talks, which he very possibly will, I would be furious. Likewise if his social policy is not up to scratch. But if he secures peace by reining in the rabid blood hounds in the military and NATO, I would be eternally grateful, as should we all.

President John F. Kennedy once said that his greatest challenge was holding back his generals tugging at their leashes, who seemed to think that it was their prerogative to make decisions and dictate to elected leaders. He also informed the world that it did not know how close it had come to war during the Cuban missile crisis. I believe the same may one day be said about the Ukrainian and Middle East crises that have driven us so close to serious conflict between great nations.

Let us all hope that, like with the cowboys of old, those guns that have been drawn in haste are put back in their holsters in wisdom, and missiles removed from borders. Let NATO and the military remember that not only are they not elected to speak and decide in our names, but that they are appointed to serve the cause of peace, not to sound the bugles of war.

Let us also hope that leaders on both sides of the Atlantic work out trade deals that are not just transparent, but socially, environmentally and judicially sound, in the interests not of rapacious multinational corporations, but of people, who, as Minister Gentiloni said, are tired and fed up of being at the losing end of a voracious globalisation behemoth.

Rodolfo Ragonesi is a lawyer and researcher in international affairs.