Book: Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order
Author: Oliver Stuenkel
Pages: 180
Publisher: Polity Press, 101 Station Landing, Suite 300, Medford, MA 02155-5148, USAEmail: [email protected]
In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way – Franklin D. Roosevelt. The conversation on Geopolitics initiates from the most informal to formal forms of discussions, starting from Tea Shops to International conferences. Whenever the discussion on Geopolitics initiates, the most common viewpoint is oriented towards Western World, especially the USA and Western World’s global supremacy. In present day geopolitical discourse, it’s important to understand the history of global politics, how the west evolved as a power centre in today’s world order and the role of the Rest of West to challenge the western dominance in creating a new parallel order.
The book, ‘Post Western World’ by Political Scientist Oliver Stuenkel, an expert in Foreign Policy, is the reflection of History of International Affairs, Contemporary world politics and the future global order. As the book title itself suggests, it desires to influence the readers to think beyond the western world. Though the book is divided intosix segments starting from the brief historical overview of pre-western global order, rise of the west, power shifts and the rise of rest to the making of New Parallel Global Order but it can be categorised into three phases, one Pre-Western, second Rise of West and lastly Rise of Rest, for better and effective understanding of Contemporary International Politics and Evolving Nature of New World Order.
The idea of the book is understanding of the creation of today’s order, its contemporary form and predictions about the future, are limited because they seek to imagine a “Post-Western World” from a parochial Western-Centric perspective.
The author tries to build an argument on this key idea, how the western-centric worldview leads to underestimating the contribution of non-western players played in the past and the constructive role that they are likely to play in the future. The arguments were substantiated initially by the way we see and interpret the contemporary political developments through widely accepted Mercator Map vs Hobo Dyer’s actual projection map.
Then the author examines through important historical events evolved around movements and personalities such as Mongol’s invasion to Europeans dealing with Asians and China’s dominance in the world’s largest economies as late as 1870s, according to economic historian Angus Maddison.
As historical books tend to create boredom during reading time, the author, along with brief historical narrative, engages the reader through contemporary studies and analysis. A major part of the book discusses the important global policies such as creation of BRICS Forum to counter Western Centric G-7 world order with parallel international institutions like Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to compliment the World Bank and similar initiatives. The combination of historical narratives substantiating with facts helps in connecting the dots from Birth of West to The Rise of West, the author tries to balance his views and arguments while countering the western-centric rhetoric.
Commenting on the book,Dr. Shashi Tharoor, an expert in International Relations & West Asian Studies, suggests that it is a fascinating interpretation of us understanding of politics and global affairs, which demonstrates the evolving nature of power today and the author presents a compelling argument – not just about the “Rise of the Rest”, also the overlooked power and influence of the non-Western world. Highly engaging and instructive. (Tharoor, 2015)
Though the author discusses the rise of east and internal challenges of China,which is the most effective player in challenging the Western World order through their hedging strategy, investments in international institutions and initiatives, contribution in tackling the global challenges like climate, security and tackling the economic dichotomy in the region, it also underestimates the role of the rest of China and Russia in challenging the current world order. As the book is written keeping in perspective of a global audience, it should have given a space for other players as well and it would have connected the larger share of global readers.
As the world is heading towards a new Global Order, this book rejuvenates adrift spirit in global readers interested in the future of Geopolitics as it strengthens an intellectual base for understanding of the world beyond the West. Stuenkel book opens a new horizon for re-visiting, re-imagining, and re-developing the vibrant dimensions of thinking of a post-western world order.