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I have pleasant memories of Switzerland. My family moved to Zurich in 1970, where I attended gymnasium and later studied at the university. My mother came from the Ticino, and actually for a long time I didn’t know where I would live later.

«Trump is like a cake mixer, where one has forgotten to screw on the lid»

I wrote my thesis in Israel and later also worked there. I then obtained a stipend to do a post-doctorate in the USA, where I then worked in a various legal practices. That is almost 30 years ago; my parents, my sister and my friends still live here.

Will you stay in the U.S.?

A couple of years ago I would have certainly said yes. Today I’m not so sure anymore. At the end of the day it will depend on how polarization develops in the U.S. Actually I am well rooted, because of my family and my children. But I have serious concerns.

Because of the increasing polarization under US President Donald Trump?

Donald Trump is simply a manifestation of all that. The polarization in the U.S. exists between urban and rural areas. There are no attempts to seek a consensus anymore. Things are only decided on the basis of majorities, which is getting ever more difficult because it is being prevented from both sides.

And what role does Donald Trump play?

He's like a mixer you forgot to put a lid on. He is loud and everything flies through the air. Trump isn’t the real problem, it is rather the unbelievable cultural polarization in the country.

What do you ascribe that to?

What worries me about the U.S. is the issue of slavery, which has never been properly discussed and analyzed. My children are young adults. They have black friends, whose parents are constantly scared of their kids being arrested or shot by police when they go out at night – simply because of the color of their skin. This is difficult to comprehend for Swiss people.

«China can with good reason regard itself as the Middle Kingdom»

The cultural gap is the last barrier to modernization and the civil rights movement in the U.S. There are people who would still rather see the world as it was in the 1950s. For them Donald Trump is the defender of a long-lost time.

Are you interested in history?

Oh yes, for me it is essential. Certain events in current global politics can only be understood in an historical context. If you don’t understand Russian nationalism, you will never understand Vladimir Putin – the humiliation following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and everything since being an effort to catch up.

Or take China’s new self confidence. The past century was one big catastrophe, but China has a 5,000-year-long tradition, and the Chinese thus have every reason to consider themselves the Middle Kingdom.

55-year-old Daniel Levin is a lawyer. He spent his childhood as the son of a diplomat in the Middle East and in Africa, and later went to school and studied in Switzerland and the U.S. For more than 20 years he has worked as an economic development consultant and political reformer for governments and institutions. He is presently a member of the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance. He lives near New York City. Based on his personal experiences, and collected during his career as a global consultant, Levin reflects in his book «Nothing but a Circus» with a sharp and bittersweet look at events behind the corridors of power.