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Looking at the present day through the lens of the recent past provides food for thought, if not grounds for pessimism. Hope for what tomorrow will bring has evaporated in many places in the West. But it's still very much alive and well in the East, where the web of routes once known as the Silk Roads are now rising again.

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The conditions in Europe after 1873 that gave rise to Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin and Stalin look eerily similar to the conditions that have brought the "strongmen" of today to the fore. The emergence of a new world order, while different from the world of Hitler and Stalin, should worry us all. We should fear the return of the world of Barbary piracy after the decline of the Ottoman Empire or of Europe after the fall of Rome.

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ROME -- Through the guidelines put forward in the recently released "Amoris Laetitia" document, Pope Francis is moving his church to be less "uniformized" by Rome alone and to become more pastorally plural and creative on the ground. In a nutshell, this means a less Roman and more Catholic Church. Catholicism, of course, originally meant "universal."

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The danger is that the post-Lula/Dilma government won't implement the reforms that are necessary. Judges may be able send politicians to jail and clean the political scene for a while, but they don't bring down the "golden curtain" that divides Brazil.

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CARACAS, Venezuela -- With his rejection of this law, President Maduro has denied any hope for peace, justice and reconciliation in Venezuela. It is clear he sees no need to respect his country's democratic institutions. As Venezuela falls deeper into its humanitarian and economic crisis, we expect Maduro to continue to disregard the autonomy of Venezuela's branches of government in order to maintain power.

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The roots of populism stretch back to the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic. The man who ultimately brought down the system was a wealthy and ambitious nobleman named Publius Clodius Pulcher, a populist demagogue who refused to play by the rules. The more audacious his behavior, the more the public loved him for it. The ruling classes stood by dazed and helpless as control of the state they had run for centuries slipped from their hands.

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At a time when the European project is at a standstill due to successive crises that have triggered nationalist pushes throughout the European Union, political ideologues and forecasters struggle to predict what awaits, or give a clear path that would enable Europeans to feel inclined to take the experiment further. One element they seem to agree upon, though, is the necessity for influential member states to be led by powerful, respected and visionary leaders.

"Amoris Laetitia" responds to the expectations of those who have hoped that Pope Francis would adopt a new approach to new issues around matrimony and the family, and disappoints those who hoped to find radical change in its texts.

SAO PAULO -- Rather than focusing on the "world drug problem" as prohibitionists are want to do, we should instead be addressing the "problematic way we deal with drugs." Formulated this way, it is then possible to have a genuinely "people-centered" approach to drug policy that actually improves lives rather than destroys them.

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The EU claims that Greek authorities have ensured that the Pakistani nationals being returned to Turkey since April 04 do not need protection (as per international law). But Greek officials themselves have publicly declared that they lack capacity to make such determinations.

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The recent kerfluffle about Bernie Sanders purportedly not knowing how to bust up the big banks says far more about the threat Sanders poses to the Democratic establishment and its Wall Street wing than it does about the candidate himself.

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SEOUL, South Korea -- Beijing never shifted its bottom line of supporting North Korea. The real reason Xi befriended Park, even at the expense of estranging Pyongyang, was to detach, or at least to distance, South Korea from the network of American alliances in Northeast Asia in which Seoul is regarded as its weakest link.

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South Korea claims that North Korea has miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on the tip of a missile. They are probably right.

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KOCHI, India -- When the basic needs of life are denied, resentment against the "other" can fester. Racial, ethnic and religious divisions can be exploited and can erupt into communal violence. But in Kerala, where equality and development are driving forces, peace has become ingrained.

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Across the world, nations are seeking out leaders who promise strength. What explains the sudden resurgence of the autocrats, 25 years after the end of the Cold War appeared to have heralded the final triumph of liberal democracy?

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What's so dangerous about strongmen like Victor Orban or Recep Tayyip Erdogan is not just that they are disdainful of individual rights -- but also that they really do give voice to the will of the people.

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I, myself, was once a displaced person. As a child in war-torn Korea, I saw my village destroyed. Today, I am determined that the United Nations does everything in its power to help refugees everywhere to keep their dreams alive.