Foreign & Public Diplomacy

It has become popular to describe our current era as post-Western or perhaps post-American. The problem isn’t necessarily that these terms are wrong. Rather, it’s that they focus on what is being replaced rather than what is doing the replacing. I’ve been as guilty as anyone. Some years ago, I had an editor who titled one of my books The Future Is Asian. I was ecstatic at his bold framing. There’s just one problem, I chided him: “The present is already Asian for most of humanity.”

One of the hardest parts about finding the right term for the world we’re living in is the fixation on order. Western international relations theory, combined with the conventions of foreign-policy punditry, has left everyone trying to identify the rules and institutions that define the emerging global or international order.

It has become popular to describe our current era as post-Western or perhaps post-American. The problem isn’t necessarily that these terms are wrong. Rather, it’s that they focus on what is being replaced rather than what is doing the replacing. I’ve been as guilty as anyone. Some years ago, I had an editor who titled one of my books The Future Is Asian. I was ecstatic at his bold framing. There’s just one problem, I chided him: “The present is already Asian for most of humanity.”

One of the hardest parts about finding the right term for the world we’re living in is the fixation on order. Western international relations theory, combined with the conventions of foreign-policy punditry, has left everyone trying to identify the rules and institutions that define the emerging global or international order.

But nothing about the intrinsic nature of history or geopolitics requires that there be some fixed and defined order. Geopolitics is the deep science of spatial power dynamics, not a popularity contest for who becomes secretary-general of NATO or the United Nations.

Geopolitics encompasses many scales and domains, whether territorial, financial, or digital. Evidence abounds that today’s landscape is populated by vastly heterogeneous regimes interacting in a multiplicity of ways, with no credible alternative on the horizon to replace it. There are no status quo powers and no meaningful institutions of global governance. In this world, James Der Derian’s notion of “heteropolarity” and Amitav Acharya’s “multiplex world” come closest to moving beyond the trite clickbait of “Who’s No. 1?” to capture the richness of global dynamics.

An illustration shows one empty flagpole alongside the flags of multiple countries. The U.S. flag is seen at far right, untethered, flying out of frame. An illustration shows one empty flagpole alongside the flags of multiple countries. The U.S. flag is seen at far right, untethered, flying out of frame. The World-Minus-One Moment........

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