NEWS  In the post-pandemic period, developing economies should rise to meet the U.S.-led liberal hegemonic world order.

CONTEXT

• According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the overall estimate of China’s military budget at $230 billion.
• This indicates the intentions for global supremacy, chiefly to outrun America.
• The primary geo-political rivals of U.S, i.e. Russia and China may possibly provide the strategic and tactical counterbalance to the hegemony of America.
• Moreover, the international order is under threat of the rising economic power of the BRICS nations, with China dominating in its economic and military capacity.

RISING POWERS AND AGENDA

• From the Renaissance period onwards, 14th-15th century Europe began its hegemonic ambitions through trade and commerce, taking almost 500 years to colonise and influence nations across the world.
• The decline of British Imperialism was followed by the ascendency of America in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis (1956). Thus, Pax Britannica gave way to Pax Americana.
• Later the tectonic shifts in the postcolonial era saw the freedom struggles against western-centric perspectives inherently inadequate and biased for the understanding of the emerging new world order.
• It was the Bandung Conference of 1955, a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, that set the scheme for the rise of Asia, politically and economically.
• In present, though China is at a long distance from surpassing the United States in its military prowess, yet it is apparent that the future of global politics requires a significant programmatic agenda in the hands of the rising powers that are aggressively building a parallel economic order envisaging new centres of hegemonic power.
• Hence, forebodes the final decline of American ascendency.

DENTS TO AMERICAN SUPREMACY

• America will continue to play a prime role in international affairs though its image representing universal brotherhood has sharply declined under the Trump regime.
• This can be attributed particularly to his foreign policy of threatening withdrawal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
• Furthermore, his bare-faced racist obsession and his handling of the marginalized immigrants have left the democratic world shocked.
• Also the rising tide of far-right ultra-nationalism experienced globally has set in motion the wearing down of liberal democracy.
• Other threats such as terrorism, ethnic conflicts, and the warning of annihilation owing to climate change necessarily demand joint international action where American “exceptionalism” is inconsistent with global.
• This indeed has chipped away at the American global supremacy.

IMPLICATIONs OF SUCH DENT

• As a result, the world will witness to a more decentred and pluralistic global order, a rather compelling vision of the empowerment of liberal forces standing up for an international order incentivized by long-term structural shifts in the global economy,
• Thus, indicating the evolving nature of power and status in international politics.

DIRECTION BY CHINA

• Despite, the current raging novel coronavirus pandemic has retarded economic development, China is spearheading Asian regionalism.
• China must strengthen the opposition to the West through the promotion of regional multilateral institutions.
• More than having individual partners or allies, China must embrace and give a push to multilateral affiliations in order to not further exacerbate regional tensions.

CONCERNS REGARDING CHINA’S INTENTIONS

• China is self-enhancing economic and military greed reflecting its personal economic rise.
• Also, its self-centered promotion of building its own stature through Belt and Road Initiative and the Silk Road project has, indeed provoked an understandable clash with India and Japan.

WHAT CHINA NEEDS TO DO?

• Though, China has risen in its global power by “adopting the idea of absolute sovereignty and following the nation-state model, but it cannot continue to rise by doing what it has been doing and it must eventually follow the liberal democratic models”.
• China must remember that its growing power has compelled the current U.S. Secretary of State, to encourage NATO members to join the U.S. in viewing China as an economic and security threat.

CONCLUSION

• Thus, a kind of dualism persists in the world order with no clear hegemony that can be bestowed on one single nation.
• The emphasis, therefore, would be a move towards restructuring and advancement, as well as adopting an oppositional posture as a robust replacement of subservience to western hegemony.
• It is feared that there could be a possibility of a multipolar world turning disordered and unstable, but it is up to the rising nations to attempt to overcome territorial aspirations and strike a forceful note of faith on cultural mediation, worldwide legitimacy, and the appeal of each society in terms of its democratic values.
• Interestingly, the sun is now setting on the empire and the rising nations are gradually waking up to a new experience of freedom and self-confidence.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-roots-of-a-decentred-international-order/article34338944.ece