Chapter 3: Why is the West Not Celebrating?

So I notice that this chapter is when Mahbubani's criticism towards the West intensifies. The main reason that the West isn't celebrating the Asian's success is because the West is power hungry. In the first two chapters, Mahbubani explained the rise of Asia, while giving the impression that the Asians are not interested in world domination. So why is the West so threatened still?

Mahbubani did not really explain why the West is so threatened about the Asian nations. Instead, he mainly provided explanations of how the West uses its power to control the world - which I am not too surprised.

The Post - 1945 World Order

The two most powerful international economic institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank has an unspoken rule: The IMF should be ruled by the Europeans while the World Bank is ruled by the Americans. Ironically, in Europe and America, the country is run by majority. However for global issues, the Europeans and the Americans are actually the minority- and yet they are dictating how two most powerful international institutes are ran.

So why is the minority of the world ruling the majority? Military and political domination.

Despite the fact that America is less than five percent of the world's population, it accounts for 46% of all military spending in the world. Using its power, it helps ensure that all nations would observe, respect and follow the fundamental rules. However, the power is also abused by the Americans. They use their military power to buy real influence.

As for political power, the West has been in power for several decades. Mahbubani claims that America is quite clumsy in exercising its political power overseas and I'm assuming that it's because America is quite narrow-minded. In some sense, Mahbubani described the West as "it's either you're with us or you're against us." For instance human torture, which is carried out by President Karimov of Uzbekistan, is ignored by the West. Because he is an ally to the Americans, they overlook his horrific actions. As for Saddam Hussein, since he's not an ally of the Americans, they pursue after him.

Western Dominance of International Organizations
It's quite frightening to read how the West uses its power to influence its international organizations. It's more frightening how Mahbubani describes the West's attitudes towards the United Nations (UN): "...we can do what we like with the United Nations." As I continue to read about the examples that Mahbubani had presented in this chapter, I started to imagine the middle ages where kings ruled their countries. In a way, that's what it seems to be happening in the United Nations. When the Americans felt strongly about an issue, it would force the council to accept its point of view. But how would they FORCE other nations to change their opinions? Mahbubani didn't elaborate any further about it.

Western Dominance of the Global Economy
In this section of the chapter, Mahbubani uses Japan to demonstrate how the West can influence other nation's decisions. The Japanese realizes that in order to be accepted in the Western community, it must be supportive to the West's interest. For instance, in the first Gulf War, the Japanese contributed US$13 billion, while the United States only contributed US$7 billion. The Japanese have also supported Western institutions, especially the Western's universities.

The Role of Western Universities
The Western universities does and doesn't help the Western nations. From chapter two, the Western universities seemed very generous since it opened its doors to everyone around the world. For a moment I was worried that Mahbubani would claim "the Western universities are only doing that because they have a hidden motive!" Thankfully he didn't though.

The West did not limit access to its universities because they valued the importance of education. This showed that despite their power hunger, they are still looking out for the best interest of the world.

Unfortunately the universities also help legitimize Western power. They support the idea that the Western ideas/influences have had a positive influence in the world. In other words, they're somewhat fabricating the truth.

Western Legitimacy and the G-7
The main idea in this section is that the G-7 is all talk, no action. The impression I was left with is that the G-7 is simply trying to keep up the image that the seven most powerful nations cares about the other nations in the world. For instance: "for over twenty years, the G-7 leaders have issued countless pronouncements that they are deeply concerned with the state of Africa and have made countless pledges to help Africa. After two decades of such pronouncements, Africa is not much better off."

The West is still in denial about its dominance and control over the world. "If you deny you are in power, you cannot cede power." The West also believe that it is the most civilized nation, while the rest are savages.