The US must change its war-waging ways, start thinking out of the box to compete on a level playing field in the global economy

Has the West Lost It?
A Provocation
Kishore Mahbubani
'A compelling warning ... It is hard to disagree with this advice from such a well-informed friend of the west' Martin Wolf, Financial Times
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 … for more, go to https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/306226/has-the-west-lost-it/ 

The US must change its war-waging ways, start thinking out of the box to compete on a level playing field in the global economy

https://youtu.be/_zDXLIa8oXc (VIDEO: Has The West Lost It?)

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 2018): Former Singaporean diplomat Kishore Mahbubani has written and released his book titled Has The West Lost It?
And he opines that China had made capitalistic gains while Washington was busy waging war.

He was quoted by the media as saying the US’ preoccupation with war as among the major reasons China may soon replace it as the world’s top economic power.

Well! What has I Love Malaysia-China Silk Road been writing in its more than 250 postings to date?

Instead of thinking out of the box, the US continues to wage wars to consolidate its arms sale as its key economy.

The US does not realise that arms sale is no more as profitable as it was in the 20th Century because others, especially China and Russia, have caught up, if not better, with arms technology.

Both China and Russia did not only strive to improve and perfect science and technology research, they also gave equal, if not more, attention to globalise their economy.

Still unable to think out of the box to respond rightly and swiftly to the global challenges and competition in technology and economics, the US continues to rely on arms sale in the 21st Century digital era.

Possibly due to its arrogance, the Donald Trump-led US has responded outrageously by taking a protectionist policy to Make America Great Again.

Trump’s sanction and tariff slapping agenda is, instead, alienating the US economy from the rest of the world, creating more and more misery to Americans and their economy.

Does Trump know or realise this? We doubt so!

Read what Mahbubani, who is also a former president of the United Nations’ Security Council, has to say:

"Mistakes that may cost the US dearly

Predeep Nambiar
| August 22, 2018

Ex-diplomat Mahbubani of Singapore says China made capitalistic gains while Washington was busy waging war.

Mahbubani autographing his book, “Has the West Lost It?”

GEORGE TOWN: A former Singaporean diplomat has pointed to the United States’ preoccupation with war as among the major reasons China may soon replace it as the world’s top economic power.

Kishore Mahbubani, who for a time served as president of the United Nations’ Security Council, said Washington chose to ignore China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation in 2001 because it was too busy fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If Washington had paid enough attention to the rise of the Chinese work force and the ability of the Chinese to work, he added, it might have saved many Americans from losing their jobs.

“The US was busy with war while 800 million Chinese effectively joined the capitalist system, and their economy took off,” he said in a talk at the Penang Institute.

He said the US made another mistake in its neglect to make the “right adjustments” when the purchasing power of the Chinese shot up in 2014.

He noted that the US had a purchasing power parity (PPP) of 25% when China’s PPP was 2.2%. Today, the Chinese PPP is 25% and the US is trailing at 20.2%.

He said only 37% of American households currently had emergency cash of US$500 or more, adding that he believed a higher percentage of Malaysians had at least the same amount in savings.

“The income of the American worker has not gone up for 40 years. This might give you an idea of why Americans are angry and got Trump elected. It is simply because they have never seen their livelihoods improve.”

Mahbubani gave the talk to promote a book in which he outlines ways for western countries, especially the US, to bounce back.

He said the first thing the US and its western allies had to do was to stop policing the world.

He claimed that Asean had done a better job dealing with Myanmar than the western allies had done with Syria.

Whereas the west had turned Syria into a strife-torn country because it used sanctions and military action, he said, Asean had achieved a measure of success in making the Myanmar regime less militaristic through engagement to improve its economy.

He acknowledged, though, that some issues with Myanmar, such as its treatment of the Rohingya people, remained problematic.

He also said the west needed to give better recognition to the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and other international bodies because “the world is shrinking” and “we need to strengthen the organisation of global governance.”

He said he found it amazing that some western countries were undermining the very organisations they created. - FMT"

China’s multi-trillion-dollar Belt Road Initiave (BRI) is making a huge economic difference in Europe, Asia and Southeast Asia (SEA) … in just five years, these are the facts:

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