Panic is setting in. "Watching Donald Trump's rise, I now understand ... exactly how Hitler could have come to power in Germany." Thus my Harvard colleague, the political theorist Danielle Allen.

"[Trump's] remedy is 1930s to the core: nationalism, crude bombast, mytho-history and sloganeering." Thus Victor Davis Hanson, also a colleague at Stanford's Hoover Institution.

"In the best-known scene of 'The Revenant,’ Leonardo DiCaprio is hideously mauled by a bear. The world’s investors now know exactly how that feels."

In this op-ed, Niall Ferguson writes that "nearly every major equity index is down since the beginning of the year, with Italy as the worst performer (-23 percent) and Canada the best (-5 percent). The S&P500 is down 9 percent. With the exceptions of precious metals and safe haven sovereign bonds, it has been a rout."

"For Bernie Sanders to call Henry Kissinger 'one of the most destructive secretaries of state in the modern history of this country,' is a reminder that, for all his appeal to younger Democrats, Sanders is a throwback to a bygone era."

Niall Ferguson writes that "Sanders’s gratuitous broadside against the 92-year-old statesman was calculated to hurt his rival Hillary Clinton, who has made no secret of her respect for Kissinger (not least in her recent review of his book 'World Order')."

“It’s a bit like reliving your college years, but with each year compressed into a day.” That was how one of my friends summed up the Davos World Economic Forum last week. “On Day One, you are a frisky freshman. There isn’t an invitation you don’t accept. But by Day Four, you are ready to graduate and return to the real world.”

A certain amount of unfamiliar discomfort reinforces the sensation that all the participants have briefly returned to their student days. The average Davos bedroom is a monastic cell. The sandwiches in the Congress Center would dismay a hungry undergraduate. Also reminiscent of university are the lectures people like me are shipped in to deliver.

Few figures provoke as much passionate debate as Henry Kissinger. Equally revered and reviled, his work as an academic, national security advisor, diplomat, and strategic thinker indelibly shaped America’s role in the 20th century. Kissinger’s counsel knew few boundaries. His advice was sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama. Yet the man and his ideas remain the object of profound disagreement.

Niall Ferguson, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of “Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist,” sits down with Aroop Mukharji to talk about everything from Kissinger, the “secret swinger,” to why ISIS is like the Bolsheviks.

Niall Ferguson (@nfergus), Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University, and author of “Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist,” sits down with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) to talk about everything from Kissinger, the “secret swinger,” to why ISIS is like the Bolsheviks.

While the world has been gripped by epoch-making events — from jihadist massacres in Paris to downed warplanes in Syria — American universities have been gripped by events that are better described as emoji-making. Like the emoticon with the smile and the tears, I cannot decide if these events make me want to laugh or cry.

"Let’s come off the prescription meds," writes Niall Ferguson. "The world faces three distinct threats: an epidemic of jihadist violence, most of it in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia; uncontrolled mass migration from these places to Europe; and the emergence of a “fifth column” of Islamic extremists within nearly all Western societies, including the United States....

The ancient Greeks believed that the gates of Hades were guarded by a monstrous three-headed dog. Like Cerberus, the monster we confront today has three heads: rampant jihadism, uncontrolled mass migration, and homegrown extremists. To defeat it, we shall need to keep our own heads very clear indeed."

I am not going to repeat what you have already read or heard. I am not going to say that what happened in Paris on Friday night was unprecedented horror, for it was not. I am not going to say that the world stands with France, for it is a hollow phrase. Nor am I going to applaud President Hollande’s pledge of “pitiless” vengeance, for I do not believe it. I am, instead, going to tell you that this is exactly how civilizations fall.