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A political midlife crisis is a turning point or watershed moment in the fortunes of a governance entity such as an empire, nation, faction, political party, or international alliance. The concept was first advanced by Arab thinker Ibn Khaldun , who compared an individual's decline after reaching the age of forty, with the sedentary decline that occurs in a dynasty.
A political midlife crisis occurs following a prolonged golden age of expansionism, optimism, economic progress, conquest, or other success, and typically features attacks on, or threats toward, a rival power. The attacks are vigorously opposed, ending in stalemate or defeat.
Political midlife crisis" is parallel to "midlife crisis" in a middle-aged person's identity and self-confidence, caused by the person's aging, mortality, and any perceived deficiencies in life attainments. Political midlife crisis applies the concepts of "social organism" and "body politic", which view an entire human society as a kind of single super-organism.