Victor Davis Hanson, a conservative historian and columnist, warned in a New York Post opinion article that Europe has brought about a set of self-inflicted crises that now threaten the broader West.
In his column published Sept. 14, 2025, Hanson described four interrelated developments — which he called the “four horsemen” of Western decline — that he argues have undermined economic strength, demographic stability and social cohesion. He attributed the problems to what he characterized as a dominant elite culture that embraced utopian policies and ideas without regard to their consequences.
Hanson’s first target was aggressive climate and energy policies, which he said became ideological mandates for “net zero” and rapid transitions to renewable sources. He wrote that elites demanded near-instant reductions in fossil-fuel use, prompting speedy shutdowns of nuclear, coal, natural gas and oil generation in favor of solar and wind. According to Hanson, the result was higher fuel and electricity prices, industrial strain and a decline in living standards; he singled out Germany as an example of a former economic powerhouse that, in his view, had been hollowed out by such choices. He also said similar policies accelerated under the Obama and Biden administrations in the United States, which he said sought to curb new fossil-fuel production without sufficient attention to costs and effects on middle- and lower-income households.
The second issue Hanson identified was a sustained fall in fertility across the West. He argued that, for decades, affluent Western societies embraced the view that there were no normative lifestyles and promoted smaller families as a form of empowerment. Hanson wrote that cultural messaging from academia, media, governments and foundations discouraged larger, multi‑child families and that the decline in birth rates — which he cited as about 1.4 in Europe and 1.6 in the United States — threatens long-term demographic and economic stability.
Hanson’s third concern was large-scale irregular immigration. He criticized what he described as policies that effectively eliminated or weakened borders, allowing millions of unaudited migrants to enter Western countries. He argued that, without legal, measured, meritocratic immigration and concerted integration efforts by host societies, such flows can strain welfare systems, heighten crime and produce social friction.
The fourth element in his column focused on what Hanson called a new tribalism, often expressed through diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and reparative policies. He argued that privileging group identity and purported victimhood undermines Enlightenment ideas of individuals, fuels permanent claims to special preferences, and risks reintroducing the tribal divisions that Western liberalism sought to reduce.
Hanson framed these four developments as interlocking and mutually reinforcing. He said they had been welcomed by a “minority of naive, secular and privileged Westerners” who believed wealth and freedom were permanent and who expected to be exempt from the consequences of failed policies.
As remedies, Hanson urged a cultural and policy reversal: a renewed appreciation for European and Judeo‑Christian traditions, skepticism toward top‑down green mandates and an assessment of their costs and benefits, encouragement of larger multi‑generational and two‑parent families, legal and assimilative immigration, and public opposition to tribal stereotyping. He also wrote that “feigned victimhood will end only when the invented victimizers say, ‘Sorry, enough is enough.’”
The piece appeared on the opinion pages of the New York Post and identified Hanson as a distinguished fellow at the Center for American Greatness. The column presented a conservative argument that the West’s current challenges are primarily the result of policy and cultural choices, and it outlined specific policy and cultural changes Hanson considers necessary to reverse those trends.