Multilateralism in the new cold war

Context: With the rise of the new Cold War(defined by technology and not trade), non- alignment is an uncertain option. India can use the opportunity to set the world response directed towards multilateralism.

Clash of values: US v/s China

• WHO: recently concluded World Health Assembly has seen a rift with the US over the issue of WHO ignoring the proposed reforms.
• UN: China’s endorsement to the UN Resolution on equitable access to any new vaccine has challenged the U.S’s imposition of western rules.
• Western vs Asian Values: Clash of the civilization is visible in the U.S inability to lead a new multidimensional institution and the accelerated shift towards the Asian principle of inclusive global order forcing health efforts. 

• The superiority of Western civilization is under question.

India’s way: “Non-coercive form”

• Benign Multilateralism: NAM-Plus could resonate with large parts of the world by bringing both BRICS and G7 on the same platform. As the world is questioning both the U.S. and China’s exceptionalism.

Way Forward

• Peaceful Coexistence: Defining the Asian century in terms of peaceful coexistence, freezing post-colonial sovereignty, non-interference in the internal affairs of others is a key lesson from the decline of the U.S. and the rise of China. 
• Technological Superiority: must be achieved to ensure national security and molding the global digital economy between state centric (China), ?rm centric (the U.S.), and public centric (India) systems. 
• New Trade Principles: Global public goods should include public health, crop research, renewable energy, and batteries, even Artificial Intelligence as its value comes from shared data. 
• Equitable Sustainable Development: Pursued through the ancient civilization’s conceptual underpinnings, which is sought by a climate change impacted world like Africa.

Conclusion: 

• We should use this opportunity to recover our global thought leadership, think Nalanda, astronomical computation, the zero, Ayurveda, Buddhism, yoga and Ahimsa as well as clothing the world for millennia.