Tears for Fears revisited the song and its message in an interview with Yahoo! Music, stating that the song's themes were still "just as poignant" as they were when they first wrote it. They mentioned that they discussed the Cold War with "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and "Songs from the Big Chair" but that was the "U.S. and Russia then, and now the concern is more with the ." Marc Ambinder from "The Atlantic" used the lyrics "Say that you'll never, never, never need it / One headline, why believe it? / Everybody wants to rule the world" in his article about the United States government's use of "original classified authority" and the abuse of power between the branches of government.