LESSONS FOR THE NEW WORLD ORDER....

 

This prescient article makes the point that the new rising world order must not make the same mistakes that were made after the First World War - and the mistakes that the USA, always a recepticle of hate for anything it that it doesn't control, made after the collapse of the USSR.

'The moral authority of the “political West” lies in tatters, its financial and security architecture fraying, and its promises of universal prosperity exposed as self-serving myths. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere; the weaponisation of sanctions and finance; the double standards on sovereignty and human rights - all have eroded trust in the Western model and driven much of the Global South to seek alternatives. The unipolar moment, far from consolidating peace, produced a world of permanent conflict and alienation.

The temptation for the ascendant powers - China, Russia, and the wider Global South - is now to meet this Western decline with their own form of triumphalism, to “put the foot to their throat,” metaphorically speaking. Yet history counsels restraint. The inexorable decay of western colonial domination at a global scale is only matched by the global south’s efforts to enable the transition to a fairer, multipolar (or multi-nodal) setup in a way that does not provoke kinetic warfare writ large.

Keynes’ lesson is that humiliation breeds resentment, and resentment breeds conflict. A just and stable new order cannot emerge from vengeance; it must emerge from generosity and strategic patience.....China’s approach to global leadership is marked by a philosophical orientation distinct from the Western impulse to dominate. Rooted in its own civilisational traditions, the Chinese concept of harmony without uniformity (和而不同) suggests that order need not depend on conformity. Rather, it arises from the coordination of difference, from finding balance among diverse interests and values. This contrasts sharply with the Western universalist model, which has historically demanded ideological alignment as the price of inclusion and sanctions and punishment as the default remedy to non-compliance..........The aim is not to replace one hegemon with another, but to create the institutional scaffolding for coexistence in diversity.........An impoverished and isolated America is not in the interests of anybody, a point I argued some time ago. But a unilateral and belligerent United States is similarly not consistent with the unfolding dynamics of multipolarity.......Such an approach represents not merely a strategic adjustment but a moral evolution. It recognises that power, to be legitimate, must be exercised with restraint and foresight. The West’s failure since 1991 has been a failure of imagination; that is, its inability to conceive of power without domination and of leadership without subordination. Magnanimity, in Keynes’ sense, requires precisely that leap of imagination: to see one’s own victory as an opportunity to build a broader peace, not to entrench advantage......History’s warning is clear. The temptation to moralise the new order, to humiliate the fallen and to convert material advantage into moral superiority are pathways back to instability.......Keynes’ voice reaches across a century to remind us that the true test of victory lies not in defeating one’s rivals but in transcending the impulse to punish them. Magnanimity, in this sense, is not weakness but the true foundations of strength and wisdom. It is the foundation upon which a durable and genuinely shared peace can be built.'




Popular posts from this blog

THE AGE OF 'ADMINISTRATIVE' POWER.

Image
Warwick Powell explains  how the administrative state has taken over in Europe... 'Regulatory authorities now determine which organisations qualify as legitimate civil society actors, which media outlets are “trusted,” which research bodies are acceptable partners and which narratives are “foreign-influenced.” These classifications carry decisive material consequences - access to funding, platforms and institutional recognition - yet are framed as neutral, technical assessments... Regulatory authorities now determine which organisations qualify as legitimate civil society actors, which media outlets are “trusted,” which research bodies are acceptable partners and which narratives are “foreign-influenced.” These classifications carry decisive material consequences - access to funding, platforms and institutional recognition - yet are framed as neutral, technical assessments.... In countries such as Georgia and Moldova, the EU has increasingly positioned itself not merely as an obser...
Read more

CHINA....AND WESTERN 'LIBERAL ORIENTALISM'.

Image
  Warwick Powell argues that when we in the west look at China we do so in a patronising way he calls 'Liberal Orientalism'. In doing so we dismiss the Cultural Revolution as an aberration rather than a crucial break with the past. He contrasts China with India - the so-called 'worlds largest democracy' where the form of Government was inherited from British Colonialism and is chaotic. This raises the whole idea of governance. If the aim is effective government, India simply doesn't compare to China.  And so is western democracy the ONLY way in which good governance can be achieved? It clearly is not - especially in the days of mass propaganda dominated by wealth and associated corruption. What the festishisation of western democracy does is place 'democracy' above effective government. People are increasingly irritated by the so-called deomocratic process because it frequently fails to address their needs. 'Liberal Orientalism  differs from classical Or...
Read more