Has the West Lost It?: A Provocation

The West's two-century epoch as global powerhouse is at an end. A new world order, with China and India as the strongest economies, dawns. How will the West react to its new status of superpower in decline?
In Kishore Mahbubani's timely polemic, he argues passionately that the West can no longer presume to impose its ideology on the world, and crucially, that it must stop seeking to intervene, politically and militarily, in the affairs of other nations. He examines the West's greatest follies of recent times: the humiliation of Russia at the end of the Cold War, which led to the rise of Putin, and the invasion of Iraq after 9/11, which destabilised the Middle East. Yet, he argues, essential to future world peace are the Western constructs of democracy and reason, which it must continue to promote, by diplomacy rather than force, via multilateral institutions of global governance such as the UN. Only by recognising its changing status, and seeking to influence rather than dominate, he warns, can the West continue to play a key geopolitical role.
'Kishore Mahbubani might well be the most intelligent, friendly and doggedly persistent critic of the West. In this brief book, he delivers some of his trademark analysis and pungent observations. We should all think of it as the cold shower that is urgently needed to revive the West' Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World
'A powerful, disputatious book. It's not comfortable reading, and it wasn't meant to be' Paul Kennedy, Director of International Security Studies and Professor of History at Yale University
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Review“Mahbubani might well be the most intelligent, friendly and doggedly persistent critic of the West. In this brief book, he delivers some of his trademark analysis and pungent observations. We should all think of it as the cold shower that is urgently needed to revive the West.” —Fareed Zakaria, author, The Post-American World
“Mahbubani offers a penetrating analysis of the West's predicament. His optimistic view is a welcome antidote to so much prevailing wisdom. It deserves to be widely read and debated.” —Lawrence H. Summers, former Chief Economist of the World Bank
“As Asia steadily advances to the centre of the world's stage, has the West properly noticed that huge change? Can it amend itself intelligently, and without as simple knee-jerk reaction? Can the United States in particular come to grips with global transformations? These questions are at the center of Kishore Mahbubani's pointed and provocative new discourse, based upon his long acquaintance with both East and West. It's a powerful, disputatious book, and provides much meat for all readers who will want to dispute it. It's not comfortable reading, and it wasn't meant to be.” —Paul Kennedy, Director of International Security Studies and Professor of History, Yale University
“Mahbubani's depiction of Western thought leaders as not willing to read the writing on the wall reminds me of the confident mandarins of late Qing China who dismissed the possibility of a world emerging that could challenge their superior system. His call for action suggests that, if the West takes heed, they could escape the Qing mandarins' fate.” —Wang Gungwu, Professor, National University of Singapore -
“Mahbubani brings unrivaled experience and insight into strategizing where the West goes from here. A book that truly speaks to our tumultuous times.” —Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group
About the Author
Kishore Mahbubani is a Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. His articles have appeared in Financial Times, Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. He is also the author of Can Asians Think?, The New Asian Hemisphere, and The Great Convergence.