The Roots Of A Decentred

Context: An analysis on growing fissures and challenges to the unipolar global order led by the US.

A brief history of power-centric global order

• From the Renaissance period onwards (14th-15th century) – an era of Eurocentrism: Europe began its hegemonic ambitions through trade and commerce, taking almost 500 years to colonize.
• Post-colonial phase:
  • Pax Britannica gave way to Pax Americana: American ascendency began after the end of British imperialism in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis (1956).
  • Defining third world aspirations: Bandung Conference of 1955 set the schema for the rise of Asia, politically and economically.

An overview of widening fissures in the present global order

• Trumpism and far-right ultra-nationalism: Decline in America’s image representing universal brotherhood.
  • Phase of retreat showcased through America’s threatening of withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), withdrawal from Paris Agreement on climate change etc.
  • Global expressions: E.g. Brexit in the UK, right-wing agenda and wearing down of liberal democracy in India etc.
  • Other threats such as terrorism, ethnic con?icts and climate change necessarily demand joint international action where American “exceptionalism” becomes an incongruity and an aberration.
• Towards a more decentred and pluralistic global order: Defined by long-term structural shifts in the global economy, evolving nature of power and status in international politics etc.
  • E.g. Impact of Asian Regionalism on international trade and commerce.
• Rising scepticism on China: China’s self-centred promotion of building its own stature through Belt and Road Initiative and Silk Road project fuelling conflicts with India and Japan.
  • Chinese idea of absolute sovereignty and following the nation-­state model, is in conflict with the Western ideal that human rights over­ ride sovereignty.
• Rising threat of military conflict: Regional military activism in Russia’s assertion of power in Georgia and Ukraine, Turkey in the east of Mediterranean, India’s disputes with Pakistan and China’s infiltration etc.
• Unquestionable capabilities of the rising economies: Economic growth of China spearheading the challenge to the established western world that has ingrained its superiority in consciousness of developing world for centuries.
  • E.g. China and India leaders in renewable energy, formidable actor in investment and trade etc.

Way forward: A kind of dualism persists in the world order with no clear hegemony that can be bestowed on one single nation. Global power gradually extends across many countries. Following should be emphasized:

• Towards restructuring and advancement: through mutual sharing of knowledge and more ground-breaking inclusive treaties.
• Restore faith in cultural mediation and democratic values: In the face of the possibility of a multipolar world turning disordered and unstable with territorial aspirations.