It is now fashionable to describe our era as post-Western, even post-American. The problem is not that these expressions are wrong, 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 sparked my enthusiasm. With one small exception, I added: “The present is already Asian for the majority of humanity.”
Finding the right term to depict the world we live in is particularly difficult 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 searching for the rules and institutions that define the emerging global or international order.
Intrinsic to history or geopolitics is nothing that demands a fixed and established order. Geopolitics is a science, not a popularity contest to determine who will be the Secretary-General of NATO or the United Nations. It analyzes the dynamics.
[Context: The author discusses the challenges of finding the right term to describe the current era and criticizes the fixation on the concept of order.] [Fact Check: The article is discussing geopolitical matters and global dynamics.]
