Has the West Lost It?

Overview

A challenge to the West from an Eastern perspective: change your thinking and your diplomacy, or you will become irrelevant

The West's centuries-old status as the center of global wealth and power is coming to an end. As the new powers—China and India from Asia and others from Africa and Latin America—rise to the top of the world's pecking order, how should the West react? Kishore Mahbubani argues passionately and provocatively that the West can no longer impose its power and ideals on the world at large, and—paradoxically—that only by admitting its decline can the West set itself up for strategic success in the long term. Mahbubani examines the myths and self-delusions of Western power with an outsider's critical eye, and the shocking freshness of his geopolitical analysis will give all Westerners and political thinkers pause for thought.

Reviews

"A compelling warning . . . It is hard to disagree with this advice from such a well-informed friend of the west." —Financial Times

"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, The Post-American World

"Kishore 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 at Yale University

"Kishore 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

"The West talks a big game, but is it built to last? For the first time since World War II, we're asking ourselves that question in earnest. Kishore 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 of Eurasia Group

Author Biography

Kishore Mahbubani is a Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. His articles have appeared in the Financial Times, Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. He is also the author of Can Asians Think?