Post-western world: how emerging powers are remaking global order.

With debates about weakening the US-led unipolar order, predictions are rife about how the future global order will be organized. Into this contested and contentious debate enters Post-western world, seeking to present a (more) balanced evaluation of the future of global order. Oliver Stuenkel problematizes ‘western’ or ‘Anglosphere’ ways of assessing future global scenarios which predict an emergence of ‘post-western chaos’. As a result, this book is a critical venture, giving both voice and agency to the world-views of the ‘non-western’ powers. Stuenkel discusses how non-western powers are agents of transformation who have already contributed to the evolution and success of the present liberal global order. Underpinning this argument is the claim that the relationship between civilizations should be understood in the context of ‘give and take’ rather than one ‘dominating’ the other (p. 47). The author predicts that the post-western world, which will be a multipolar order, will be—‘largely thanks to the economic catch-up in the developing world—more prosperous, with far lower levels of poverty on a global scale, than any other previous order’ (p. 26). The rising powers will maintain a cordial stance as they negotiate their rise in the current international system while also trying to develop parallel global structures to ensure that their own interests are maintained.