The East should speak up now while the West dithers

Why the West won the day

The second decade of the twenty first century seems to be throwing up exciting times for the millennium-old relationship between the East and the West. The last four centuries have seen the West first overwhelm the East with superior firepower and then influencing it with her ways, the East has been influenced in the same way the vanquished is influenced by the narrative of the victor.

There were fundamental reasons behind the victory of the West over the East in the last four centuries. Firstly, the West had created her own convictions in the form of nation state and market economy. The West was successful to create her own identity because she thought in terms of reason and critical thinking. The West had come to conclusion about her ideas after an extremely messy and bloody debating period where competing ideas fought to death among themselves; the hundred-year war, French revolution and Napoleonic wars. In the end the, the West had decided that market-economy based nation states are the most superior form for organizing and governing human beings.

Another major reason behind the success of the West has been her jealousness to spread her ideas throughout the World. After spending so much time fighting for her ideas, the West had come to conclude that her ideas are the only beneficial ideas for the World and she wanted to spread those ideas around all over the World. Because the Western ideas whether they came from the pens of Calvin and Luther or from the guns of George Washington or Napoleon; had to assert themselves in the face of fierce opposition. As a result the believers in these ideas which survived the opposition considered these ideas as either divinely selected (in case of the idea of American exceptionalism) or universally applicable (in case of ideas emanating out of the French revolution) and wanted to spread it all over the World. When the Puritans arrived in the New World they considered themselves as divinely elected and when the French defeated the Mamlukes in Egypt, they were also convinced about the absolute supremacy of their ideas over whatever the indigenous peoples of these lands could come up with.

The East had stopped producing any idea with global aspirations by this time. The Ottoman Empire which was the last empire from the East to attempt spreading its influence in the West was decaying rapidly by this time; neither India nor China were also in any position thanks to their weak and moribund societies either to develop any ideal conviction nor to attempt any propagation. The consequence was simple: being overwhelmed by the West due to her military superiority and forced to follow and adopt Western ideas and narratives thanks to the failure on the part of East to come out with idea or conviction. For the last four centuries this has been the case so far in the history of humanity.



The picture of change in the 21-st century

In the twenty first century though, finally the picture seem to be changing somewhat. After spending four centuries under the influence of the West finally the East seemingly showing signs of a come back. Now days the fastest growing economies in the World are China and India, the fastest growing economy in Europe is Turkey, Russia is also showing signs of great comeback after economic collapse in the nineties , a record number of billionaires can be found in China , Russia and India whereas the West seem to be reeling under recession and stagnancy. The East has been masters in trade and commerce (the evidence lies in the historic silk routes) for most of the previous two millenniums and the adoption of some of the principles of Western market economy seem to have helped the East to find its roots and strong points in a new and more effective way.

Another interesting case in point is that since the Second World War, the West has not been able to continue her overwhelming military colonization of the Eastern peoples. India and China got liberated from Western colonialism though India did not reject the Western influence; the small nation of Vietnam achieved her national independence by defeating two successive western colonial powers in the face of just two decades, West had to gradually give up most of her empires in Asia and Africa thanks to popular revolts though she did not give up the attempts to influence these lands ; thanks to a group of loyal allies and proxies the West has been able to still project her influence over a broad sway of her previous colonies even after she had to give them all up.

But in the twenty first century the Western ideas are facing challenges for some simple reasons. Throughout the last 60 years of their existences the IMF and the World Bank has given more or less the same prescription to those nations who had the misfortune to knock at their doors; increase taxes on the common people for generating more revenues, privatize all of your nationalized industries (even if they happen to be run well enough under government control), cut down “unnecessary” spending (which by the definitions of the IMF and the World Bank have often included all government subsidies to the needy and vulnerable in the societies of the poor countries). And the IMF and the World Bank has got very little to show for all of these efforts. An Argentina here, another Greece there, these are all the mementos that IMF has to showcase for all its efforts.

The Western idea of popular representative-based democracy is now universally accepted as the most acceptable norm of governance. However the Western attitude towards implementing what she preaches to the rest on democratic tolerance leaves a lot to be desired. From Mossadegh in Iran to Allende in Chile, the West has looked to secure her interests more than adhering to her own self-preached ideals. The United Nations is on the verge of irrelevancy. The Western eagerness to have her own ways has led the West to go against the wishes of the majority of the United Nations in major issues such as Iraq war in 2003, ongoing Israeli-Palestinian issues and the ongoing war (“kinetic action”) in Libya, thereby considerably adding to the general irrelevancy of the institution itself.


The East should put its foot forward

The time is right for the East to assert its own independent position. There are two reasons for which the East needs to come up with its own ideas. Firstly, the East needs her own ideas and laws regarding government and economic management since the time id ripe for the East to shed its dependence on the West for defining how to govern people and finance. Secondly if the East comes up with parallel ideas for governance and economics then the West would be forced to look into her own ideas thus ensuring change in the Western mindset towards the East.

Let us start with economics first. The West has created institutions like the World Bank and the IMF to balance the budgets of the needy countries and spur them to the path of growth. Successive case studies from Argentina to Pakistan show the failures of these approaches and attitudes. It is time for the major non-Western economies, I mean to say China, India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey and Indonesia to come together and create a global financial institution so as to present a better alternative to the poor and needy nations of the World. The list of countries to the above mentioned could be and should be expanded in future based upon future global trends. These countries which I want to call as the “East” has now sufficient economic muscle behind it in terms of both cash liquidity as well as financial expertise to present an alternative to that of the World Bank or the IMF. The recent economic and mercantile successes of all the above mentioned countries conclude that there are no goods and services in this world that these “Eastern” countries cannot produce with much lower cost and appropriate quality than the West. These successes should propel the “East” to come together and present an alternative institution like the one I mentioned as above. This particular institution can be effective in two counters. One , it will not attach any strings or riders to its agreements with the poor and needy countries in the same way the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund does thereby providing much more economic independence to the governments of the poorer nations and two , it can provide funds for much needed infrastructure improvement in needy areas of the World for example like the recently proposed Turkey-Iran-Pakistan railway as well as improving communication through roads in Central and West Asia and different parts of Africa and Latin America.

The East will not be able to assert its case without using sound strategic, political and military alliances. Unlike the West which is ready in every way to assert her positions with military might the “East” as of now is not looking to transform its economic advantages into concrete military instruments for asserting its interests where those interests clash with that of the West. The organizations like BRICS and SCO should come together for creating an effective military and protecting alliance for protecting its valuable interests in the face of the continuous Western assertion through military alliances like that of NATO.

Now days the battlefield is not restricted to frontlines only but to the minds as well. To win the “battle of hearts and minds” the East should promote think tanks as well as train and use professionals explaining and spreading its ideas all over the World. The emphasis should be both on making the case of the East as well as pointing out the contradictions in the Western economic and political policies which have not been fruitful for the East.

The current global situation indicates that the West is confused about her policies particularly after the 2008 global financial downturn and the recent ongoing events of upheaval in the Western Asia and North African regions. The East though basking in the glory of her achievements in the economic field is yet circumspect and not convinced enough to step into the show. This time in history is the right time for the West after a long time to present its own ideas as a positive alternative to the Western model.