A number of recent books have
usefully analysed the nature and consequences of the ongoing shift in the
centres and sources of global power. From the 'decline of the West' to the
coming 'contest for supremacy' between the world's two largest economies and
the notion of a G-Zero world, where no one is in charge, there is much
diversity in perspectives about the direction in which the world is headed.
Some writers bemoan the fact that the West's hour of power has passed. Others celebrate the rise of the rest. Many worry about the 'coming anarchy' as the international system becomes more multipolar. Scholars assessing global politics seem to divide between the pessimists and optimists. There is little agreement among them about whether the extraordinary changes sweeping the world will make it more or less stable, produce volatility or history's most hopeful period for human civilisation.
Kishore Mahbubani joins this debate as an optimist. But he is also clear-eyed about present challenges. His new book 'The Great Convergence' is as insightful as his earlier one, which dealt with Asia's rise and offered an Asian perspective to the global debate on the reconfiguration of power. His latest book has already stimulated renewed discussion about how the world should be managed in its current complex phase.
Mahbubani calls for "geopolitical wisdom" on the part of Western nations, who cling to obsolete ways of thinking, but should now share power to keep pace with an interdependent world where their clout has shrunk. Trying to perpetuate their dominance of global institutions can result in loss of legitimacy, and international turbulence.
The Singaporean academic and former diplomat, who served as his country's envoy to the United Nations, offers a fascinating tour d' horizon of a world in profound change. He starts from the optimistic premise that the world has witnessed more positive change in the past three decades than in the last three hundred years. He points to several trends – decline in poverty, fewer wars, spread of education, expansion of a global middle class and emergence of a less unequal world. Asia, he writes, will soon account for the world's largest middle class. These trends mean that more people across the world are living better and more peaceful lives.
Mahbubani sees globalisation as not only creating a more interconnected and interdependent world but also a 'one world' dynamic. Despite its diversity the global community has come to agree on "a set of norms about how to create better societies." This is what he means by the 'Great Convergence', which also reflects living standards of the West (12 percent of the world's population) converging with the rest (88 percent). It is also manifested in the convergence of interests, perceptions and aspirations, and the fact that citizens now breathe "in a single information universe". Mahbubani uses the metaphor of a boat to describe the 'one world' reality. The world's citizens are sailing in uncharted waters in the same boat but with separate cabins and no captain.
His main concern is with the inability of institutions of global governance to keep pace with these convergences. His thesis is simple and compelling. If the world has changed so must our way of managing it. He wants the international community to capitalise on the global momentum toward 'convergence' by adapting national systems and reforming global institutions. The one world dynamic is "unstoppable and irreversible", but policy makers still operate with "mental maps of the 19th century". This inhibits a global response to global problems. For him new mental maps mean balancing national interests with global considerations and acting in the collective interest.
He does not minimise the obstacles and "disruptive events" ahead and asks whether geopolitics will derail convergence. He answers by examining two contrary trends of cooperation and competition that co-exist today. He then identifies the world's toughest geopolitical challenges as: the America-China relationship, Sino-Indian relations, and the gulf between Islam and the West. He remains hopeful about their future trajectories because incentives to cooperate are greater than to clash. But each of those challenging relationships will require adjustments and problem solving. On the latter count he urges a fair settlement of the Israel-Palestine problem and the Iranian issue.
The crux of book lies in examining why global governance institutions are weak and dysfunctional when the world has a common interest to strengthen them. Is this by design or default? Mahbubani believes it is the first. He argues that it is Western nations that have chosen to keep multilateral institutions weak. They are also reluctant to give up their domination of these institutions. This is evident from the fact that even today only a European can head the IMF and an American can lead the World Bank.
After the Straus-Kann scandal, Mahbubani says western hubris was reflected in the alacrity with which a French successor was appointed. Europe continues to be over represented in many international organisations. But Mahbubani's principal focus is on the UN Security Council where 12 percent of the world's population controls 60 percent seats in the world's most powerful political institution.
He argues cogently that with Western ascendancy in the world coming to a close it is time to end the policies and practices of a bygone era. The West should learn to share power in global institutions as its share in global GNP and population has now shrunk. It must also overcome its opposition to strengthening global institutions. America, writes Mahbubani, practices democracy at home, but opposes democratisation of global institutions abroad.
He argues trenchantly that if it once made strategic sense for the West to keep global institution weak as it could defend itself unilaterally, it can no longer do so in an environment where most problems require multilateral collaboration. As the world enters the era of 'convergence', it is time, says Mahbubani, for the West to correct its past strategic error in allowing short term, often narrow, special interests to override enlightened long-term interests in developing stronger global institutions.
He offers pragmatic suggestions to reform the UN system and identifies key principles for reform that balance recognition of power imbalances with the rule of law. This call for reform is accompanied by suggestions to improve the global system – encourage more global conversation to bring people together, end anachronistic policies and evolve a global ethic.
This lucid book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the far-reaching power shifts that are underway and who believe that the world needs robust and representative institutions to manage it. Mahbubani shows how that can be accomplished.
Apart from the book's larger message, there is instructive discussion of other subjects, as for example the impact – or lack of it – of foreign aid. Mahbubani cites several studies to draw the sobering conclusion that aid has helped donors more than recipients, and hindered not advanced progress. HeHH lays bare how the arrogance and condescension of western aid-givers speaks to their self-interestedness rather than benevolence that is propagated as a myth by western NGOs and the media.
There is also a perceptive discussion of the difference between Asian and Western minds. Westerners he says, tend to work within Cartesian frameworks and have a black and white view of the world; "One side is right and the other is wrong". The Asian mind is more comfortable with contradictions and paradoxes; "both sides of a contradictory proposition can be correct".
Mahbubani's overall optimism extends to Pakistan, which he holds up as the example of an Islamic nation that has endeavoured to establish the rule of rule even in the midst of its other challenges. He shines a light on another aspect. "No other Muslim country", he writes, "has as talented and as successful a diaspora as Pakistan does". And this fact provides "real hope that Pakistan can itself thrive in modernity".
Kishore Mahbubani, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West and the Logic of One World, New York, Public Affairs Book, 2013.
http://e.thenews.com.pk/7-9-2013/page7.asp#;
Some writers bemoan the fact that the West's hour of power has passed. Others celebrate the rise of the rest. Many worry about the 'coming anarchy' as the international system becomes more multipolar. Scholars assessing global politics seem to divide between the pessimists and optimists. There is little agreement among them about whether the extraordinary changes sweeping the world will make it more or less stable, produce volatility or history's most hopeful period for human civilisation.
Kishore Mahbubani joins this debate as an optimist. But he is also clear-eyed about present challenges. His new book 'The Great Convergence' is as insightful as his earlier one, which dealt with Asia's rise and offered an Asian perspective to the global debate on the reconfiguration of power. His latest book has already stimulated renewed discussion about how the world should be managed in its current complex phase.
Mahbubani calls for "geopolitical wisdom" on the part of Western nations, who cling to obsolete ways of thinking, but should now share power to keep pace with an interdependent world where their clout has shrunk. Trying to perpetuate their dominance of global institutions can result in loss of legitimacy, and international turbulence.
The Singaporean academic and former diplomat, who served as his country's envoy to the United Nations, offers a fascinating tour d' horizon of a world in profound change. He starts from the optimistic premise that the world has witnessed more positive change in the past three decades than in the last three hundred years. He points to several trends – decline in poverty, fewer wars, spread of education, expansion of a global middle class and emergence of a less unequal world. Asia, he writes, will soon account for the world's largest middle class. These trends mean that more people across the world are living better and more peaceful lives.
Mahbubani sees globalisation as not only creating a more interconnected and interdependent world but also a 'one world' dynamic. Despite its diversity the global community has come to agree on "a set of norms about how to create better societies." This is what he means by the 'Great Convergence', which also reflects living standards of the West (12 percent of the world's population) converging with the rest (88 percent). It is also manifested in the convergence of interests, perceptions and aspirations, and the fact that citizens now breathe "in a single information universe". Mahbubani uses the metaphor of a boat to describe the 'one world' reality. The world's citizens are sailing in uncharted waters in the same boat but with separate cabins and no captain.
His main concern is with the inability of institutions of global governance to keep pace with these convergences. His thesis is simple and compelling. If the world has changed so must our way of managing it. He wants the international community to capitalise on the global momentum toward 'convergence' by adapting national systems and reforming global institutions. The one world dynamic is "unstoppable and irreversible", but policy makers still operate with "mental maps of the 19th century". This inhibits a global response to global problems. For him new mental maps mean balancing national interests with global considerations and acting in the collective interest.
He does not minimise the obstacles and "disruptive events" ahead and asks whether geopolitics will derail convergence. He answers by examining two contrary trends of cooperation and competition that co-exist today. He then identifies the world's toughest geopolitical challenges as: the America-China relationship, Sino-Indian relations, and the gulf between Islam and the West. He remains hopeful about their future trajectories because incentives to cooperate are greater than to clash. But each of those challenging relationships will require adjustments and problem solving. On the latter count he urges a fair settlement of the Israel-Palestine problem and the Iranian issue.
The crux of book lies in examining why global governance institutions are weak and dysfunctional when the world has a common interest to strengthen them. Is this by design or default? Mahbubani believes it is the first. He argues that it is Western nations that have chosen to keep multilateral institutions weak. They are also reluctant to give up their domination of these institutions. This is evident from the fact that even today only a European can head the IMF and an American can lead the World Bank.
After the Straus-Kann scandal, Mahbubani says western hubris was reflected in the alacrity with which a French successor was appointed. Europe continues to be over represented in many international organisations. But Mahbubani's principal focus is on the UN Security Council where 12 percent of the world's population controls 60 percent seats in the world's most powerful political institution.
He argues cogently that with Western ascendancy in the world coming to a close it is time to end the policies and practices of a bygone era. The West should learn to share power in global institutions as its share in global GNP and population has now shrunk. It must also overcome its opposition to strengthening global institutions. America, writes Mahbubani, practices democracy at home, but opposes democratisation of global institutions abroad.
He argues trenchantly that if it once made strategic sense for the West to keep global institution weak as it could defend itself unilaterally, it can no longer do so in an environment where most problems require multilateral collaboration. As the world enters the era of 'convergence', it is time, says Mahbubani, for the West to correct its past strategic error in allowing short term, often narrow, special interests to override enlightened long-term interests in developing stronger global institutions.
He offers pragmatic suggestions to reform the UN system and identifies key principles for reform that balance recognition of power imbalances with the rule of law. This call for reform is accompanied by suggestions to improve the global system – encourage more global conversation to bring people together, end anachronistic policies and evolve a global ethic.
This lucid book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the far-reaching power shifts that are underway and who believe that the world needs robust and representative institutions to manage it. Mahbubani shows how that can be accomplished.
Apart from the book's larger message, there is instructive discussion of other subjects, as for example the impact – or lack of it – of foreign aid. Mahbubani cites several studies to draw the sobering conclusion that aid has helped donors more than recipients, and hindered not advanced progress. HeHH lays bare how the arrogance and condescension of western aid-givers speaks to their self-interestedness rather than benevolence that is propagated as a myth by western NGOs and the media.
There is also a perceptive discussion of the difference between Asian and Western minds. Westerners he says, tend to work within Cartesian frameworks and have a black and white view of the world; "One side is right and the other is wrong". The Asian mind is more comfortable with contradictions and paradoxes; "both sides of a contradictory proposition can be correct".
Mahbubani's overall optimism extends to Pakistan, which he holds up as the example of an Islamic nation that has endeavoured to establish the rule of rule even in the midst of its other challenges. He shines a light on another aspect. "No other Muslim country", he writes, "has as talented and as successful a diaspora as Pakistan does". And this fact provides "real hope that Pakistan can itself thrive in modernity".
Kishore Mahbubani, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West and the Logic of One World, New York, Public Affairs Book, 2013.
http://e.thenews.com.pk/7-9-2013/page7.asp#;
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