Kishore Mahbubani

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Has the West Lost It?

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

Sometimes you need a shock to wake you up. Has the West Lost it? (2018) is such a shock. The sheer concentrated force of this 91-page essay [...] is as unrelenting as it is astonishing . . . It's time we listened to Mahbubani.

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'

It's 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

Kishore Mahbubani brings unrivaled experience and insight into strategizing where the West goes from here. A book that truly speaks to our tumultuous times

In the longer view, America's - and before that Europe's - dominance may come to be seen as a short aberration and the rise of China and other Asian nations as simply a reversion to the natural order of things. That at least is the key point of a provocatively titled book, Has the West Lost It?, by Kishore Mahbubani, a Singaporean academic and former diplomat. As many in America and Europe contemplate the dramatic changes to their world in the past few years, it's been getting a lot of attention.

A Provocation

The West's centuries-old status as the centre of global wealth and power is coming to an end. As the new powers - China, India, Africa - 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 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.

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

Kishore Mahbubani is a Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He continues to serve on the boards and councils of several institutions in Singapore, Asia, Europe and North America. His articles have appeared in a wide range of journals and newspapers, including the Financial Times, Time, Newsweek and The New York Times. He is also the author of a number of books, including Can Asians Think? More information on his writings can be found on www.mahbubani.net.

Has the West Lost It?

A Provocation

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

Sometimes you need a shock to wake you up. Has the West Lost it? (2018) is such a shock. The sheer concentrated force of this 91-page essay [...] is as unrelenting as it is astonishing . . . It's time we listened to Mahbubani.

We should all think of it as the cold shower that is urgently needed to revive the West

It's a powerful, disputatious book . . . It's not comfortable reading, and it wasn't meant to be

Kishore Mahbubani brings unrivaled experience and insight into strategizing where the West goes from here. A book that truly speaks to our tumultuous times

About Kishore Mahbubani

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