How the West Ended Up in Westlessness
Written by: Hamidreza Natanzi
In mid-February 2020, the latest round of Munich Security Conference was held with an unprecedented theme: Westlessness. The condition in which the world is becoming less Western, and the West itself is becoming less Western, too.
According to Chairman of the MSC Wolfgang Ischinger, the West is encountering two distinct challenges: “The first is that the West is apparently becoming less western than it used to be; the West as a community of interests, values, has been torn apart. There are countries that used to be integral part of the west, that are going off a different direction. That’s one huge challenge. The other challenge is that the world at large is apparently becoming less western. The idea which many of us had, the hope that many of us had, a decade or two ago, that the global community will integrate more and more and become more western, accept classic western values and institutions, etc. that hope is no longer such a realistic hope.”
There is no single definition for the West, bounding it to a geographical direction or territory. To some it has been a geographical bloc, and for some a civilizational bloc sharing same values and goals. MSC report reads that “for the past decades, the answer to the question what it was that kept the West together was straightforward: a commitment to liberal democracy and human rights, to a market-based economy, and to international cooperation in international institutions.” These are main western values as we have heard for many years. In retrospect, performance of western states, particularly the United States which has claimed to be the role model, can describe why the Westlessness is occurring.
Liberal Democracy
2020 elections primaries going on and so far, many controversies have happened in American politics. In about three weeks, billionaire Mike Bloomberg was able to rise in the polls among top runners who have been campaigning for nearly a year now, by spending billions, until a disastrous debate performance. A move that showed how money can impact the election in the States; the underlying impact of money in American politics was revealed to the world.
Problems with the American democracy, however, is not just about money. The Democratic party efforts going on right now to remove Bernie Sanders from the scene is a telltale of the situation. What happened covertly in 2016 leading to nomination of Hilary Clinton as the democratic runner, is now being displayed overtly by convincing all candidates out of the competition one after the other to support the pro-establishment candidate, Joe Biden. This was after the controversies over Iowa primary elections and the warnings figures like Tulsi Gabbard had earlier raised about electronic voting systems.[1]
Nevertheless, American democracy’s worst crisis is the electoral college structure. Questions were raised on it in 2016, when Donald Trump managed to win the election despite winning less popular votes. At the time Hilary Clinton became one of the most outspoken opponents to the electoral system, along with majority of Americans who prefer a popular vote for election of president[2]. They are demanding a change in the constitution[3] with many seeing the electoral college to be ‘the biggest threat to American democracy.’[4]
Human Rights
American history is marked with institutionalized violations of human rights from the very beginning to the modern era. From lynching and segregation to oppression of movements such as Black Panthers and Black Wall Street, to Black Lives Matter and I’m Choking moves are routine violations of American society.
African-Americans are not the only race suffering from discrimination; Hispanics and Latinos are other targets who have suffered in recent decade due to anti-immigration policies of Barack Obama and Donald Trump as well as white supremacist, right-wing extremism raising in recent years. But prior to the African Americans, Latinos or Asians, Indian Americans have been the victims of violations from the day one. They have been brutally killed and assassinated and even the promised lands have never been given to them. This manifest destiny of Native Americans is shared by Canadian First Nations as well. After centuries, they are still fighting for their own rights and lands.
European people are not enjoying a much better condition. It is more than a year and half that Yellow Vest protesters are on the streets of Paris and other cities across France and are welcomed by police brutality and iron fist and government has ignored their demands. Similar experiences were shared by Roma people in France, protesting students in the UK, etc.
Free Market Economy
Much of the positive mythology around the free market collapsed in 2008, when the great depression happened and left many people homeless or bankrupt. Even regardless of the embarrassing fiasco over the way heads of banks dealt with the bonuses and bailouts, the consequences and outcomes of the Wall Street capitalism dominating western societies is painful. Millions of people in the biggest economy of the world are living paycheck to paycheck, thousands of students begin to experience debt from the age of 8, their families being unable to pay their lunch debts, and 50 million people are still in debt for tuition in tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
One in three Americans are financially fragile, unable to cope with emergency expenses in a short timeframe[5] while 27% of adults would need to borrow or sell something to pay for an unexpected expense of $400. [6] 140 Million Americans cannot afford to pay for medical prescriptions; and one quarter of adults have no retirement savings, and skipped necessary medical care in 2018 because they were unable to afford the cost.[7]
International Cooperation
The failed experience of League of Nations was supposed to be resolved by the formation of the United Nations and its various organizations. UN entities were supposed to promote cooperation and prevent or at least resolve conflicts, and avoid further wars across the globe. None of that has happened because the western countries who were key players did not abide by international regulations and laws.
Even the 21st century, we have witnessed numerous cases of violation of international laws and undermining the UN. Afghanistan and Iraq wars, attacks on Syria or Libya, inhumane sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, Russia, etc., all depict how western powers take advantage of the United Nations whenever in their own favors; or they will pay ransoms (like US-backed Saudi Arabia forcing UNICEF to remove the Arab regime from list of child-killing countries), using financial leverages (like the US to prevent reports or investigations against Israel) or even leaving the bodies (like the US getting out of the UN Human Rights Council and UNESCO).
Emergence of right-wing, nationalist approaches across the globe is another sign of failure of this internationalism. From Poland to Hungary, Spain, the US and Brazil, people have come to power that promote right-wing extremism and nationalism. International cooperation is fading away and the leader of the movement is no one but the United States. Washington did support Brexit because they found it a damage to the EU, left global treaties like Paris Climate Change agreement or regional ones like NAFTA or even a multilateral agreement like the JCPOA which enjoyed UN Security Council support. This is a key part of the ideology which President Trump has been selling to his fellow citizens, increasing polarization and populistic nationalism among them.
And now, as the world is about to welcome the 5G technology, the US is showing the highest level of selfishness by doing everything to prevent China from advancing this technology. They arrested a Huawei high-ranking manager in Canada and now are doing anything to discourage Europeans from working with China on this technology. The competition is based on neither international cooperation, nor economic rationality; but merely based on unilateral selfishness in the modern world.
Developments in information and communication technology have changed the world and the governments cannot easily sell beautiful, but empty slogans and mottos to the public like before. The emperor is now seen by everyone being nude in his new clothes and people are not deceived simply by claims and words. Nations across the world are seeing hypocrisy of the western states and are not willing to have similar governments and on the other hand they are seeing emerging powers who, realistically, have their own points of strength and weakness. Francis Fukuyama has postponed the end of history[8] and admits that nations are seeking their own identities even in the West.
[1] https://www.tulsigabbard.org/tulsi-gabbard-on-secure-elections
[2] https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/27/poll-popular-vote-electoral-college-1238346
[3] https://news.gallup.com/poll/257594/americans-split-proposals-popular-vote.aspx
[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/opinion/the-electoral-college.html
[5] https://www.nefe.org/press-room/story-ideas/2018/americans-are-financially-fragile.aspx
[6] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/23/millions-of-americans-are-only-400-away-from-financial-hardship.html
[7] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/23/millions-of-americans-are-only-400-away-from-financial-hardship.html
[8] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/03/francis-fukuyama-postpones-the-end-of-history
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