The West and the Rest

The West and the Rest highlighted and challenged, in depth, four key realities of the Western world and how we think about the rest of the world. The West faces serious dangers and "it cannot afford to turn its back on the Third World because the Cold War is over." A new strategy is needed, but it will take willingness to sacrifice and suffer on the Western side.

Through the history of western countries, it is clear that when times get tough, for example, an ally is unable to transform themselves at short notice to comply with our standards, we abandon without much guilt. This is also apparent in the past withdraws from Third World societies. Why are we so unwilling to hurt ourselves for the good of people we claim to care about?

I believe the answer lies in Kishore Mahbubani's realization of the nature of the Western strategy to democratize the rest of the world (and promote human rights at only the peak of a disaster). Economic development must come before we try to implement full-scale democracy. Also, we must realize that Third World progress is determined and has to be founded on "good government" and not mere democracy. The answer also lies in our leader's ability to inform the citizens of this reality.

Mahbubani highlights the painful changes and sacrifices Western societies leaders must explain when announcing the seriousness of the problems that are already on their way to our front doors. I agree and believe this is especially difficult because of our willingness to accept freedoms and liberties and quickness to deny and harshly criticize anything less than our standards of "good" that we think we deserve.

Even if some of the points made in the paper are up for debate and discussion, I don't think many would argue that there are some serious issues being buried that will undeniably show up again. Although the public can raise awareness on the severity of the long-term problems the West faces, it is up to the leaders to take control and stop implementing short-term plans and shutting the door behind them. We have been warned that our guns are pointed the wrong way; the question is: will we reassess the realities of our problems too late?