How should the West be developed?

The world is changing. The USA and its allies have not succeeded in isolating Russia internationally or even “ruining” it (Annalena Baerbock). A new world order is emerging, no longer characterised by US-Western dominance, but by increasingly emancipating states and peoples in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this new world order, it is no longer the Western side that determines the rules of international relations (by means of its arbitrary “international rules based order”), but equality among states and peoples – according to the Charter of the United Nations – can come more into play. Within this new world order – also in line with the wording of the UN Charter – peace and peace efforts are very serious guidelines for the relevant actors, and international relations are characterised not only by more equality, but also by considering the economic and social interests of all participants. And there are even signs that the US leadership may be beginning to assess the limits of its power more realistically.

Towards a new world order

There has been evidence for all of this in recent weeks and months. They include the fact that the majority of the international community has not joined the Western sanctions against Russia, the declarations of various government representatives of other states that they do not want to heed the politically motivated arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court ICC against Russian President Putin, the diplomatic successes of China in Good Offices in the Middle East, the aspirations of numerous states from different continents to join the non-Western cooperation community BRICS, the deepening cooperation between Russia and China, and the recent statements by US Secretary of State Blinken on peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which deviate from the previous maximum Western demands.

What will become of the West?

This contrasts with the catastrophic state of the West and its leading power, the USA. Anyone who has observed the history of the West and its internal state in the past decades with an open mind will not be surprised by this – but will still be very concerned in case he or she lives in this West and wants to feel at home there.
  Most of the world will find its own way; we can be more certain of that today than we were a year ago. But what will become of the states and peoples of the West? Is there also hope for the West, a development model or perhaps also different development models for this part of the world? It is easier to ask this question than to give an answer. Even the arguments listed here are just an attempt. But if the people living in the West, if the citizens of our states do not want to fatalistically resign themselves to their decline, this question must be discussed, good answers must be struggled for.
  At this point, I would like to offer three thoughts.

Return to the virtue of honesty

My first consideration: There has to be a return to the virtue of honesty. This concerns our power elites as a whole – and especially our media. The disinformation and manipulation of recent years, which has gone as far as crude propaganda, must be stopped. Just one current example: When searching for reactions on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia, I looked for voices from other continents. The result is that many media in non-Western countries are trying to be much more objective than our journalists. Instead of formulating commentaries that pretend to be able to judge the matter immediately, they first set out how the state visit is seen by the countries directly involved. For example, on 23 March, the daily newspaper “The Star”, which has the largest circulation and is distributed throughout South Africa, published a statement by the Chinese Foreign Minister on the state visit, which first appeared in China. Where can we find something like this in our media?
  The dishonesty of the more than 100-year-old neo-colonial slogan “democracies against autocracies” is recognised everywhere in the world, but still too little here in the West. Starting with the myth that the then US president Wilson entered World War I in 1917 “to make the world safe for democracy” which was not true. In the USA itself, contemporaries spoke with good reason of the “merchants of death” – in the form of the US arms industry, which had an overwhelming interest in the US entering the war. Other tangible material interests, namely those of the US banks that had given war loans to Great Britain, France, and Russia, were also involved.
  But honesty also requires dealing critically with recipes for overcoming the crisis of the West coming from the ranks of the previous power elites. They may call themselves “Industry 4.0”, “Green New Deal” or “Great Reset”. Regarding the underlying image of humanity and their view of the world, the question of power and money, they are largely “old wine in new bottles”.

Europe must return to its own values

My second reflection: Fifteen years ago, Singaporean scholar and diplomat Kishore Mahbubani published the book “The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East”. With a lot of evidence, he proposed that the rise of Asia was due to the fact that the emerging countries of the continent took to heart the earlier recipes for success of the West – free market economy, promotion of science and technology, rewards according to real performance, pragmatism, culture of peace, rule of law and education – for their own development. Whereas the states of the West have turned their backs on their own recipes for success.
  I would like to expand on this idea of Kishore Mahbubani: The states and peoples of the West have largely destroyed their own value system. The valuable traditions of European thought and European cultural substance – which, by the way, also strongly fertilised the idealistic beginnings of the USA – have always been exposed to the hostility of continental European and Anglo-Saxon power politics and greed. But probably never in the centuries before has the break in values been so radical as in the past decades – intensified once again after the supposed “victory” in the first Cold War. If the West, if Europe wants to recover, it must return to its values and also live them actively.

Don’t let the power elites rule

My third consideration: The return to European values cannot be controlled by the current power elites. All people, all citizens of the states of the West, who are of good will and aware of the importance of the question of values, are called upon to participate in a spiritual and ultimately also emotional change that goes to the roots. I think that this “radical” change is needed: not with barricades and violence, but with sure steps with understanding and sentiment. The indelible human social nature will be the key for this.  •