November 19 is International Men’s Day and hopefully it will be celebrated in many countries to raise public awareness and bring focus on issues that affect men in what many today describe as the post-factual or post-modern world. Men do not tend to show political solidarity towards their own gender as women do. Therefore, despite the fact that there are more men than women who commit suicide in the western world, very little help is provided. In the countries that I have lived in for the past decade such as Sweden and Denmark, you would find ten times more women´s homes than men’s homes, or establishments which excel in providing shelter during winter and food for the poor and homeless.

Men are supposed to manage by themselves. The presidential elections in the United States changed that for a while. Men, some say white men, voted in huge numbers to insist that they are being left out and are basically losing in the game of globalization. A male candidate, Donald Trump, listened to their woes and worries and formed a domestic and foreign policy that keeps most people guessing and on the tip of their toes.

So on this day, let me remind all of us that men can be good fathers, good workers, teachers, doctors and also good politicians. If we are ready to give the benefit of the doubt to Donald Trump, he can only surprise the world positively. The verdict is clear: Donald Trump is the President of the United States. Experts on international affairs would have us believe the worst-case scenario where the United States under Trump leadership would become inward-looking, isolationist, incoherent and ill-informed. But these projections might turn out to be a biased coverage by the media, primarily in US, which, with exceptions of a few, unequivocally demanded total support for Hillary Clinton. The media in India fortunately did not fall into that trap.

On International Men’s Day, I would like to bring attention to four male leaders who can shape the outcome of the coming decade for billions of people whose lives are shaped and affected by policies, affiliations and relationship of trust.

Trust matters, not just in our private relationships with our spouses, but also when it comes to building relationships between nations and their peoples.

Some do not trust Trump. Carl Bildt, a former Prime Minister and later Foreign Minister of Sweden, wrote this week in Washington post that we are probably going to see the end of the West as we know it. Trump´s friendship with EU skeptics like Nigel Farage bothers EU leaders as they see the European Union crumbling apart in different directions as a result of the migration and monetary crisis facing the continent.

But then there are those who are optimistic. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reiterated that he had a very candid discussion after having an unofficial meeting with President elect Donald Trump in New York. Abe became the first head of state to meet in person with Trump. He laid emphasis on building trust. Trump himself has been absolutely explicit in his admiration of India´s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has explicitly spoken in favor of both Modi and the Indian diaspora during the election campaign. Trump mentioned that India and the United States are going to be the best friends.

We are probably going to look at a totally new configuration, four male leaders, Trump, Modi, Putin and Abe, from four different corners of the world, coming together to form a sort of pragmatic alliance of the willing.

What do they have in common? They are all despised by the elitist media. Except for two American newspapers, most of the traditional mainstream media endorsed Hillary Clinton and not Donald Trump. The leftists and the liberals have collectively condemned these leaders for being nationalist, and fear the worst-case scenario. The four male leaders have a chance now, if they want to prove the media wrong. Instead of isolationism, they could engage in constructive dialogue for creating an atmosphere of peace and understanding.

Vladimir Putin is equally disliked in the educated circles of the European media, and his policy of being an unwavering ally of Bashar-al-Assad of Syria has shocked the European leaders. The guess of the town was that it was a question of a few months before the Assad regime would collapse. It never happened. Now Assad, another male leader, might consider that Trump will give him a chance and they might end up as trusting allies.

Many political pundits are predicting that the place where America needs to invest its time and attention is Asia and not the Middle East. With a heart full of compromises, it looks as if Trump and Putin can work out an agreement on Syria and ISIS. They are both keen on fighting ISIS and if Russia bombs ISIS, then Trump would without hesitation support such action. On the other hand, Trump might withdraw the support to the insurgents and other innumerable jihadist groups fighting Assad, paving the way for a mutually trusting relationship.

We are probably going to see an end to the accidental bombings of the Assad regime’s soldiers by NATO planes and there would be a better co-operation on adjusting America’s and Russia’s strategic national interests. Is this good for the world? I bet it is.

Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe have both co-operated well and Japan is one of the biggest investors in India, responsible for building and finishing fine engineering projects, thereby benefitting the Indian population. They have a good mutual chemistry.

So my hunch is this: Contrary to all expectations, we will see fewer wars, larger and mutually agreeable trade deals and better co-operation and intelligence sharing between India, Japan, America and Russia.

Russia has never been keen on being pushed to create an alliance with China, and hopefully with Trump in power, Putin can relax and assume that there would not be major provocations at the borders of Russia forcing him to take military measures.

This spells an era of peace, not war. The co-operation between them will shape the lives of billions of people and I think we all should give it a chance. Hopefully, thanks to the Indian diaspora in the United States, who worked very hard to convince both the Democrats and the Republicans that partnership with India is in the interest of the United States, we are now witnessing the beginning of a mutually beneficial partnership. Trump has reiterated that India and the United States are natural allies.

With all due respect to those who all along have been skeptical of Donald Trump, I feel like saying that he has come out with positive statements about India and Hindus. His daughter Ivanka Trump took a day off her calendar to spend time with Indians celebrating Diwali. Compare this with most of the tolerant leaders of the European Union who, with the exception of UK, have never been heard saying anything regarding the Hindu minority, which on the global level constitutes the third largest religious minority.

For all that talk on tolerance, we might be positively surprised that Donald Trump, despite his strong rhetoric, might end up as a pragmatic leader, striking deals and agreements that not only benefits poor Americans but might be agreeable to a number of other countries which are democratic in their political governance.

On International Men’s Day, I took the exceptional liberty to comment on male leaders trying to refute the tide of skepticism prevailing, which is not always objective. Male leaders need to be positive role models and we must stem the tide of negative focus on men just because there are a few incompetent and corrupt male leaders, too. I have said something positive about men in a world that is turning hostile and indifferent to the sufferings of marginalized male members of many western countries, who are dying early, lonely and facing exclusion. Criticism of leaders in a democracy is legitimate but singling out male leaders just because they are male is being partial not fair. Men want jobs and want to live up to their roles as bread winners of the family, and in the western world they are increasingly feeling marginalized and forgotten.

Men are sometimes subjected to mistrust, false accusations, longer prison terms, and sometimes diagnosed with several psychiatric illnesses on ill-founded grounds. Gender equality also means treating men with respect. Because we men are brothers, fathers, sons, and we, too, are capable of loving our fellow beings and respecting the other gender. We love our children as much as women do, even if we do not give birth.

Abe took the initiative. Modi should follow the course and Trump should invite all the above-mentioned men to create a sense of direction in his foreign policy.

Other countries are important, too. But the time has come for America to put its genuine efforts in Asia. It is in the interest of the United States to forge this long-lasting partnership, which hopefully will soon prove those doomsday philosophers wrong.