It is currently fashionable to describe our era as post-Western, even post-American. The problem is not that these expressions are incorrect, but that they focus on what is being replaced rather than on what is replacing them. I plead guilty as well. A few years ago, a publisher titled one of my books “The Future is Asian.” A bold decision that excited me. Except for one small detail, did I clarify: “The present is already Asian for the majority of humanity.”
It is particularly difficult to find the right term to depict the world we live in, because we are fixated on the notion of order. Under the influence of Western international relations theory and the conventions among foreign policy specialists, we are constantly looking for the rules and institutions that define the emerging global or international order.
Nothing in the intrinsic nature of history or geopolitics requires a fixed and established order. Geopolitics is a science, not a popularity contest to determine who will be the NATO or United Nations Secretary-General. It analyzes the dynamics.
Source: Foreign Policy (Washington) – Founded in 1970 to “stimulate debate on essential issues of American foreign policy,” Foreign Policy was long an academic journal before becoming a bimonthly in 2000. Its ambition now: to be the leading “magazine on politics, economics, and international ideas.” Currently led by Ravi Agrawal, the title is owned by the Graham Holdings Company, which also owns Slate. Foreign Policy launched several foreign editions in the early 2000s, in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America, and in 2009 completely transformed its website. ForeignPolicy.com aims to be the leading online daily covering foreign policy and national security issues. Alongside journalistic investigations and reports, there are numerous contributions from international relations experts with varied political orientations.
