Andrew Sheng

Opinion | With the West in decline, the Rest must forge their own path

The West’s imperial history means it has set many global standards since the 15th century, while the solidification of US hegemony after 1945 convinced many former colonies to buy into neoliberal ideology

More recently, though, it has become clear that the Global South must chart its own course to a sustainable future

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Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour is surrounded as members of the UN Security Council hold sideline meetings during a break at the organisation’s headquarters in New York on December 19. Photo: Getty Images/AFP

Andrew Sheng

Published: 7:30pm, 12 Jan 2024

What does the “decline of the West” mean? With the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, the line between the West and the Rest (what is today called the Global South) has become clearer. In Ukraine, the West expected the Rest to support its principled stance of fighting for national sovereignty and against aggression from neighbours. It was surprised that the Rest did not fall in line, with many abstaining from taking sides.

In abandoning diplomacy and balance in favour of weaponising everything, the collective West – the United States, European Union, Japan and Australasia – is increasingly isolating itself from the Rest, divided into the East (strangely grouped as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea) and the other countries in the Global South which refuse to align with either the East or the West.

Today’s modernity is associated with the West, which has set the scientific, educational and cultural standards since the 15th century, when European explorers opened up maritime trade routes to the Americas, Africa and Asia.

Colonisation became a land and power grab by Europeans against the Rest, with the use of superior military firepower, industrial and financial technology. This power grab continued into the 20th century, with Belgium taking Congo as late as 1908, the United States solidifying control over the Philippines in 1902 and the Italians trying to colonise parts of Ethiopia in the 1930s.

When the US took over the mantle of global hegemon from the British Empire after the end of World War II, many former colonies bought the neoliberal ideology that free trade and markets, democracy, the rule of law and equality would be a universal creed for all nations and cultures.

That naive belief ended when inequality within the West itself widened, even as the gap with the Rest narrowed. Neoliberal idealism shattered as the West’s middle class began to turn towards protectionism, industrial policy and, in the case of Israel, military occupation and subjugation of Palestinian rights.