The west is in crisis. The advance of China, India and other nations has led to a dramatic shift of economic power.

In the political sphere, military adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan have compromised western influence, leading the US to draw back from its “superpower” role. Yet the west’s troubles go deeper than that. It is suffering a moral crisis, a crisis of identity.

Some are now uncomfortable using the term “the west” for fear that it carries the residue of an imperialist and racist past. But that is not the only source of discomfort. The crisis of identity also springs from the challenge of Islam, a creed that can make western liberal secularism seem morally tepid, if not worse. Indeed, the term “liberal” is at risk of becoming a pejorative. In continental Europe it connotes little more than market economics. In parts of the US it is becoming a synonym for “radical”, or even “socialist”.