“First we had the rise of the west – now we’re experiencing the rise of the rest,” said the world-renowned journalist and commentator Fareed Zakaria in his presentation to a full house at the Concert Hall Aarhus as part of MatchPoints 2013.

2013.05.29 | Bjørg Tulinius

Fareed Zakaria is one of the most prominent foreign policy commentators Photo: Jesper Rais, AU Kommunikation

There is one big question nowadays that nobody knows the answer to – how will the world’s new financial heavyweights such as China and India develop?

Will they go through the same transformation that the Western countries did, and thereby develop into democracies like ours and eventually subscribe to the same values that we do? Or will they take an entirely different path altogether and – if so – what will this mean? In other words, is modernity necessarily the same as Western modernity?

Fareed Zakaria is one of the most prominent foreign policy commentators in the world, and he is in no doubt that we are currently witnessing a radical breakthrough in world history. Western dominance is being challenged by the progressive heavyweights like India and China, which are just some of the new growth countries emerging in large parts of Asia and Latin America, as well as parts of Africa.

“There’s no longer one single superpower. In recent years, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of countries that have become important players in the global economy, and they’ve therefore also gained a cultural voice,” said the Indian-American journalist and author Fareed Zakaria.

Wish to find their own way
In his view, it particularly concerns the many countries outside the West finding a way to modernity that is not just a copy, but their own way.

“Modernity is, of course, a Western phenomenon that stems from our history. It has its origin in the Renaissance and seriously gained momentum in the 1700s with the Industrial Revolution. So the challenge is how a non-Western country becomes a modern nation when there’s a wish at the same time to hold on to its roots,” said Fareed Zakaria.

He himself was born and raised in the Indian city of Mumbai, and he moved as a young man to the USA, where he studied political science at Harvard and Yale.
He actually used India and China as two examples of completely different approaches to the new era, where it is no longer just the West and the superpower USA that lead the way and dominate at all levels.

“China is roughly speaking wild about everything that glitters right now, and it wants to benchmark along with the richest Western countries. They get Western architects to design their imposing new buildings and they buy expensive Western brands. You could say that their approach to modernity has been to create the Chinese Dream,” said Zakaria.

India is different, according to Zakaria. Here the new growth is seen to be connected with another national pride altogether, and the country is very preoccupied with not losing its ‘Indianness’.

Tax and democracy
Zakaria also pointed out that there is another crucial difference between the new economic growth countries and the West – and this is particularly critical as regards the development of democracy.

“Governments in the Western countries have had to impose taxes to maintain welfare, and the inhabitants have demanded representation in return. In reality, this has strengthened democracy,” said Zakaria.

In the wealthy oil states in the Middle East, on the other hand, there has been no need to impose taxes, and as Zakaria formulated it: “No taxation – no representation.”

He explained that the lack of political roots among the population therefore also has a bearing on where the opposition to a regime comes from.

“When this doesn’t take place in the political arena, we’ve certainly seen that the opposition in the Middle East has often begun in the mosques. The language of Islam thereby becomes the language of opposition. And, in this way, Islam can actually also be seen as a proposal for an alternative way in relation to the Western version of modernity,” said Fareed Zakaria.

International responsibility
According to Zakaria, what is absolutely crucial in the new epoch in world history is how countries like China, India, Brazil and Russia will relate to the rest of the world. Will they take on responsibility regarding international challenges such as climate change? Will they help to intervene in conflicts in other countries – or will they, on the other hand, isolate themselves and avoid getting involved?
“I don’t know how it will go. But there’s no doubt that this point is precisely where the really big challenge lies in the new global order,” stated Fareed Zakaria.