Individuals are back. Powerful individual humans gained power in recent years at the expense of collective movements and institutions in all the world’s five most populous nations: India’s Narendra Modi has a second wind after 12 dominant years; Xi Jinping is China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong; Donald Trump is radically reshaping America at home and abroad; Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto is rehabilitating the image of the country’s last dictator; while Pakistan’s Asim Munir consolidates power.
Why this is happening, and will continue to happen, is because of how the brains of these leaders – and their followers – shape and respond to the world around…