The Ghost of Helsinki: How We Let the World Sleepwalk Into Chaos: Fifty years ago, in July 1975, the world’s leaders gathered in Helsinki, haunted by the wreckage of two world wars and the shadow of nuclear annihilation. Thirty-five nations signed a pact—the Helsinki Final Act—designed not to unite the world, but to freeze it in a kind of uneasy balance. It worked, not because anyone trusted each other, but because the alternative was total destruction. Today, that balance is gone. The fear that once kept the world in check has evaporated, and what’s left is far more dangerous: arrogance, denial, and the illusion that chaos can be managed.