Rethinking Civilization: Resolving Conflict in the Human Family by Majid Tehranian

Author:Majid Tehranian [Tehranian, Majid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Globalization, Political Science, General, History & Theory
ISBN: 9781136036545
Google: dZrjAPK5Q5AC
Goodreads: 17532567
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2006-12-26T00:00:00+00:00

Regionalism and multipolarism

The current world system appears unipolar, with the United States as the only superpower with a global military, economic, and political reach. However, growing multipolarism can be witnessed all over the world. The European Union is leading the charge. Some European powers (notably France and Germany) have already challenged US unilateralism in Iraq and Iran, though the EU is still going through its growing pangs of military and political integration. There is a divide between the old Western Europe and the new Eastern European countries. China is rapidly regaining its historical role as a dominant power in Eurasia. Given the present trends, China is expected to turn into the largest economy in the world by 2020. Lester R. Brown (2005) has identified China as replacing the United States as the world’s leading consumer. In most consumer fields, except oil and automobiles, China is currently a greater consumer than any other country in the world. “China is no longer a developing country,” Brown concludes. “It is an emerging economic superpower, one that is writing economic history. If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be Chinese century.”

Several new power centers are emerging in the world. Given its energy needs, a Chinese alliance with the Middle East (beginning with Iran) is entirely possible. Although the transition to capitalism has been a rough road for Russia, the country is large, multicultural, and ambitious. In July 2005, a World Public Forum will be held in Moscow to counter the Western-dominated World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. India also is a power to be reckoned with. With a population of nearly 1 billion, a respectable rate of growth, and nuclear weapons, it will exert itself in South Asia. MERCOSUR has brought a growing number of Latin American countries into an economic cooperation organization. Led by Brazil and Argentina, it includes some other smaller Latin American countries aiming at economic integration. The African Union cannot be counted as a powerful regional organization until its largest members, South Africa and Nigeria, can achieve an effective level of continental leadership. The ASEAN has shown itself capable of regional cooperation if not regional assertion. Regional organizations of various kinds have been formed during the past few decades with different levels of achievement. Nation-states that are situated at the center of competing blocs have found it expedient to belong to several of them. Some Central Asian states, for example, simultaneously belong to CIS, NATO, and OECD. The new mulitpolar world is yet unfolding. In the decades to come, an increasingly interdependent world will be tested by the ambitions of nations to dominate the world, or, one may hope, to co-exist peacefully among competing regional groupings.

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